PRESS: Govt approves 3.95% rise of Transneft’s 2018 pumping price

MOSCOW, Dec 22 (PRIME) -- The Russian government on Wednesday approved a 3.95% increase of oil pumping tariff for oil pipeline monopoly Transneft in 2018, Vedomosti and Kommersant business dailies reported on Friday quoting sources.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service suggested a 4% baseline increase of the tariff and a 16.7% discount to transportation of oil to China through Kazakhstan by oil major Rosneft. The government approved a tariff increase of 3.95% and a 16.7% direct decrease of the tariff for oil pumping via Kazakhstan.

Anatoly Golomolzin, a deputy director of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, confirmed the decision to Vedomosti, Transneft declined to comment.

Previously, Igor Dyomin, aide to the president of Transneft, said that the 4% increase takes into account the planned level of inflation, but does not include the necessity to pay 50% of the net profit in dividends, as suggested by the Finance Ministry. The dividend payout may amount to 88.18 billion rubles in 2018.

In 2017, the company paid 58 billion rubles in dividends, while the tariff increase encompassed payment of only 31 billion rubles. The 4% tariff increase for 2018 and the same level of dividends will mean a deficit of 87.9 billion rubles for the company. Transneft will be unable to cover the deficit with a simple cut of investment projects, and that is why the company asked for a 21% increase of the tariff, Dyomin said earlier.

The sources told Kommersant that Transneft was among other Russia’s largest state companies that previously ignored the government ruling on payment of 50% of the net profit calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in dividends. The sources also said that the decision to raise the company’s tariffs by 3.95% means that Transneft will also not pay 50% of the net profit in dividends.

The government usually makes decisions on dividends of state companies in March–May of each year.

(58.5596 rubles – U.S. $1)

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