KYIV. Feb 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – President of the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) Volodymyr Klymenko has said that he want to build or buy freight wagons to transport agricultural products in the conditions of a lack of rolling stock if public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia provides a 30% discount.
“Farmers have proposed to include the carrier to the supervisory board of representatives of key sectors to return trust to it. We are ready to build wagons themselves if a 30% discount to the tariff is given. In addition, Klymenko recalled the specifics of the sector operation and said that the increase of the tariffs before July 1 is unacceptable for the representatives of the sector,” The head of the Verkhovna Rada committee on industrial policy and entrepreneurship, Viktor Halasiuk, said in a press release after the round table held on Tuesday and devoted to the influence of the tariff policy on industry and economy.
According to the press release, President of Ukrmetallurgprom Association (Dnipro) Oleksandr Kalenkov said that due to unsatisfactory operation of Ukrzaliznytsia the mining and metal complex of Ukraine saw large losses in H2 2016. Some 3 million tonnes of steel was not made.
He said that the structure of the cash cost of the Ukrzaliznytsia’s tariff remains non-transparent.
“They say that the tariffs are low, while in presentations for European investors they say that return on cargo transportation is 35-50%. Thus using monopoly the railways subsidizes passenger transportation,” he said, adding that some tariffs exceed the tariffs in Russia.
“This year Ukrzaliznytsia seeks to invest UAH 27 billion. At present, before the increase of the railway tariffs, the company can use UAH 13 billion. Show your effectiveness and then we will give consent to the indexation [of the tariffs],” he said.
