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  • 2006 May 3

    The number of port fees will be minimized, according to Alexey Kliavin.

    Director of the Department of State Politicians in the field of sea and river transport of the Ministry of Transport of Russia, Alexey Kliavin told about the work of the Ministry on formation of a new system of port fees, about forthcoming navigation over the Volga and Baltic Seas and prospects on creation of the Port special economic zones in the interview to the PortNews IAA.

    - Mr. Kliavin how is the work on establishing of new port fees going on? Have the documents been submitted to the Federal Tariff Department?
    - The work is still going on, we keep in touch with the Federal Tariff Department, documents have been submitted on April 24, 2006. I believe we will continue our mutual work on this document.

    - What port fees changes can we expect?
    - First of all, the number of fees will be minimized so they become clear enough. There is no need for rising of fees. Somewhere they can increase and somewhere decrease, but in general the additional charges for ship owners are not planned. It will be possible to speak about the results a bit later.

    - When will the new system of port fees become effective?
    - There is no need for rush if the question concerns such serious decisions as, for example, alteration of port fees. Therefore serious and long work in this direction is necessary for making certain conclusions. I hope, that by to the end of this year we will move further in it.
    It is necessary to understand that in principle the port fees in Russia didn’t change since 1995. There is a need for updating including the improvement of a system of calculation.
    We now study the European experience, their system of port fees is based on three components: a tonnage, a cargo onboard a vessel, and an infrastructure intended for servicing of this cargo.
    It is necessary to consider another serious factor. We should understand what exactly we want to develop, either it is transportations of oil or container transportations, ferrying transportations or general cargoes; and then pursue the appropriate tariff policy, especially under such conditions as inevitable unification of railway tariffs. The Ministry of Transport should create good conditions or, at least, try to create good conditions for development of different kind of transportations. Port fee could become one of the factors, which allow raising competitiveness of different kind of directions.

    - So, in your opinion, what kind of transportations should we develop?
    -I would like to know, for example, that we develop container transportations as these are the high technologies recognized all over the world. The Ministry of Transport pays big attention to considerable growth of container turnover through the Russian ports and to the operation of the Transsiberian highway for the East-West transportations, the West-East and to the operation on the North-South directions, including an access to Iran, through the port Olia, for example.

    -The press keeps on discussing the offer made by the management of the State Basin Administration Volgo-Balt to collect an additional payment from river carriers for passing over the rivers. Can you state your position?
    -I believe, that first of all payment should be collected for the use of artificial hydraulic engineering constructions, which are created specially to provide navigation. But it has to be fair enough. That will provide a possibility of normal work for ship owners, and also to support an appropriate working condition of hydraulic engineering constructions.

    - What way will the payment be fixed?
    - The work on it is currently carried out with an attraction of scientific research institutes. We also carry out works on determination of the river categories and restoration works. Due to the financing of hydraulic engineering the constructions of internal waterways for many years remain below the standard; we work on these standards to conform to the current legislation.

    -What about the elaboration of new contracts concerning rent of HEC in the Russian ports?
    -We work on it properly. We work out methods. Term of rent is not set yet, however, to our mind, it should be sufficient for business to remain on its confident positions. We repeatedly discussed the concessive agreements and the port special economic zones at the meetings in the Ministry of Transport. If the port projects usually recoup the investments in 7-8 years time, business guaranteed a minimum of 15-20 years term of rent is able to invest actively. I consider this situation to be quite normal. We hope these methods will be elaborated by the end of year.

    -The amendment to the law of special economic zones viz. the allocation of the new port zones is expected to come into force in a short time. Is it possible for an individual stevedore company to become a special economic zone?
    - I am not ready yet to tell you how it will be put into practice. There are definitions of the resident and non-resident in the project. The most important thing for this special economic zone is that customs borders will be placed above the limits of the port. That means that the vessel has come to a berth, but has not crossed the custom border. Next step you can do almost everything that is necessary with this cargo in the port, namely staffing, packing and the operations, which allow processing it the most effective way. In case the part of a cargo goes on the territory of the Russian Federation, the corresponding customs clearing is carried out, or the cargo avoids an unnecessary customs check, as if it is in a state of an export. If it is separately located terminal, it can quite be a special economic port zone, but it should be the indissoluble territory, which should be fenced and be supervised. Now we are waiting for the corresponding offers from Kaliningrad and St.-Petersburg


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