07/11/2020   PortNews   https://portnews.ru/news/304371/

05/11/2020  NewsVL.RU  https://www.newsvl.ru/society/2020/11/05/194350/

The draft order of the Ministry of Transport of Russia “On approval of the required investment port dues for 2021-2023” has been published. The draft document and the explanatory note to it are posted on the Federal Portal for the placement of draft regulatory legal acts. Public discussion of the draft will last until November 20, 2020.

The calculation of the investment port dues (IPD) for 2021-2023 was made by FSUE “Rosmorport” based on actual data on the total gross tonnage of vessels who entered Russian seaports during 9 months of 2020. A prerequisite for the introduction of the IPS in Russian seaports was a sharp and long-term decline of the Ruble against US$ (more than 2 times), the main currency of foreign trade (90% of ship calls at the seaports of the Russian Federation are carried out by vessels of foreign navigation). Assessment of the amount of lost funds from levying port dues is the basis for calculating the permissible (maximum) aggregate amount of port dues.

To assess the impact of the introduction of the ISS on the competitiveness of Russian seaports, the ‘Rosmorport’ performed a comparative analysis of the cost of the call of the same vessel in Russian and foreign seaports – competitors within the boundaries of the North-Western and Southern geographical sea basins. There is no competitive environment for the ports of the Far East.

For Russian ports located in the Northwest Basin, the main competing ports are the ports of the Baltic and North Seas. Calculations based on a sample of 10 foreign and 5 Russian seaports show that the total amount of port dues in domestic ports is lower by 30% – 60% of the average level for the basin, even taking into account the introduction of the IPD and the indexation of the current rates.

Within the borders of the Southern Basin the main competitors of the are the ports of Ukraine, in which the rates of port dues are set in US dollars and are generally 2 – 2,5 times higher than in Russian ports of Novorossiysk and Tuapse.

Taking into account the establishment of the size of the ISS at the level proposed by ‘Rosmorport’, the cost of a ship call in currency terms will be lower than the pre-crisis level.

In its turn, the Federal Antimonopoly Agency of Russia (FAA) has prepared a draft order on the approval of IPD rates in the ports of the Russian Federation.  The list includes the Bolshoi Port of St. Petersburg, Primorsk, Ust-Luga, Vysotsk, Novorossiysk, Tuapse, Vostochny, Nakhodka, Vladivostok, Vanino, De-Kastri, Prigorodnoye and Murmansk. The fee in 2021 will be 12.31 rubles / 1 GT (gross tonnage of the vessel). The FAA proposes to set a multiplying coefficient of 1.235 for 2022 by 2021 and 1.406 for 2023 by the size of 2021.

The draft order establishes that the indicated IPD rates are the maximum. ‘Rosmorport’ has the right to apply IPD rates at or below the maximum level.

“As for the IPD, I said that it was introduced only in 13 of our 67 ports, that is, exactly where it is needed,” said the head of ‘Rosmorrechflot’ Federal Agency Alexander Poshivai. “And there, in these ports, where it was introduced, its impact on the cost of a ship call will be insignificant.”

*** The government of the Russian Federation approved in 2019 the rules for the IPD collection for the ships of foreign navigation. The amount of the fee must be determined upon agreement between the Ministry of Transport and FAA. IPD is not collected from ships entering the port without carrying out cargo operations or servicing passengers, as well as from transit and ships that repeatedly enter the port after leaving it by the decision of the captain of the seaport or for carrying out deviation procedures.