PRESS: Russia may equate Far Eastern, other pwr prices for 10 yrs

MOSCOW, Mar 29 (PRIME) -- The government may cut power tariffs in the Far East to an average Russian level for 10 years, not for three as planned before, to improve investment attractiveness of the region, Vedomosti business daily reported on Wednesday.

The Far East Development Ministry offered the measure at a March 20 government meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Ministry Yury Trutnev. The Energy Ministry, the Federal Antimonopoly Service, and hydropower giant RusHydro agreed with the proposal, but rejected a suggestion to introduce the measure from April 1, the business daily reported.

Previously, President Vladimir Putin approved amendments to the law on power that ordered a decrease of power tariffs in the Far East and a simultaneous markup to the tariffs in the European part of Russia, the Urals, and in Siberia. The markup will be transferred to RusHydro, and later sent to budgets of the Far Eastern regions that will distribute them among guaranteed suppliers and power sellers.

The mechanism was to be launched in 2017 for three years, and payments for power should have been recalculated from 2017. The service expected the measure to raise consumer spending by 29.5 billion rubles per year.

Trutnev ordered the service to calculate the markup size by March 29 and define the list of Far Stern regions that would receive it. The Energy Ministry was to introduce changes to the law on power sector until March 25, study the calculations together with the service and RusHydro and report on the results to the government until March 10.

The term of the subsidy was raised to 10 years as investors have to have understandable, consistent and forecastable business conditions in the Far East, and the increased term may play a significant role in decisions of investors to start long-term projects in the region, a representative of the Far East Development Ministry told the business daily.

(56.9364 rubles – U.S. $1)

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