Igor Artemiev, Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation, asked RF President Vladimir Putin to give instructions to shareholders of Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP) to transfer tariffs for stevedores from dollars into roubles. Prime agency says that according to the President’s instructions, tariffs should be transferred to national currency by 1 January 2018.
At the meeting dedicated to the development of infrastructure in the North-West of Russia, Igor Artemiev said that NCSP still sets tariffs for stevedores in dollars.
“I think a possibility of your instructions could be considered here so that state shareholders holding the control stake in those ports made such decisions to execute our instructions since it is required for the development of our financial system, financial centers. At least, Central Bank speaks about that,” says Igor Artemiev.
NCSP Group consolidates the port of Novorossiysk (Baltic Sea), the port of Primorsk (Baltic Sea) and port Baltijsk in the Kaliningrad Region. Rosimushchestvo owns 20% of shares in the port. The Summa Group and Transneft, JSC, hold 50.1% of NCSP shares pari passu. Transneft, JSC, independently controls another 10.5% of NCSP stock. The structures of Russian Railways own 5.3%, while the rest are the free-floating shares.
When asked by Vladimir Putin about the consequences, Igor Artemiev said: “That will force the foreigners buy roubles, which is interesting for CB. That will let develop the financial infrastructure and make financial centers”.
“We transfer to this scheme from January 1 but with reserve for specific situations and specific projects ... We should use our brain and ensure that nobody have any losses. But we should transfer to our national currency,” summarized the president.