Stevedores are eligible for rent reduction and deferral
RF Ministry of Transport has backed the proposal of the business community to include seaborne passenger transport, stevedores and associated businesses into the list of sectors most affected by the pandemic. Stevedores are also eligible for rent reduction and deferral.
In response to the address of the Association of Commercial Sea Ports, the Ministry of Transport supported the proposal on inclusion of some businesses related to seaborne transport into the list of sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them are water transport, storage facilities and supporting transport activities, tourist agencies and other organizations providing tourism services.
The Ministry of Transport also considers it necessary to lend the first support to tour operators dealing engaged in inbound tourism since they contribute to tourism development in the country and ensure multiplicative economic effect. In particular, it involves the activities of shipping companies specializing in cruise tourism.
The decision to include the above mentioned businesses into the list of most affected industries should be made by the Government. This has been recently discussed at the meeting chaired by RF President who gave instructions to analyze the situation as we wrote earlier >>>>
Among the proposals put forward at the meeting was the setting of tariffs in foreign currency with payments to remain in rubles since the bulk of expenses for equipment are in foreign currency while the national currency rate is under a strong pressure.
Words do pay debts
What can be done immediately is to defer payment of rent to Rosmorport.
The Ministry of Transport suggests signing of additional rental agreements with lessees included into the unified register of small and medium-sized businesses to defer payment of rent for April-June 2020 for a required period but not later 31 December 2021.
For lessees operating sea terminals but not included into the register it is proposed to defer payment of rent till 1 October 2020 if the terminal throughput has decreased by over 10% versus the same period of the previous year or versus the previous month if no activities were carried out a year ago.
Besides, the Ministry suggests reduction of rent payment if the terminal throughput has decreased by over 20%.
At the same time, the Ministry of Transport says that complete exemption from rent is impossible without a decree of RF Government.
It should be noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin called on maintaining of the investment horizon for the development of transport infrastructure despite the crisis developments in the global and national economy.
According to the analytical digest of Roscongress, federal expenditures for a comprehensive plan for upgrading and expanding core infrastructure and its budgeting in the first quarter of 2020 were higher than in the previous year: RUB 24.1 billion and 6.4% vs RUB 16.9 bullion and 5.1% accordingly. However, smaller figures of 2019 can be attributed to a later beginning of financing (in February). The analysts forecast a decrease in the second quarter of 2020.
Vitaly Chernov
