Watchdog to boost fines for excessive gasoline prices in Crimea

MOSCOW, May 15 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service will significantly raise fines for Crimean companies if they continue to drive up gasoline prices in the region, Director Igor Artemyev told reporters on Tuesday.

“Now they pay 120 million (rubles) of fines, but if they think that they can pay a fine and continue to steal from the population, this will not happen. There will be one more fine, it will just be squared. It is 120 million (rubles) now, and it will be 1 billion (rubles),” Artemyev said.

In 2016, the antimonopoly service’s Crimean branch fined five largest oil traders 129 million rubles for collateral that led to higher gasoline prices at gas filling stations. In April 2017, the watchdog opened a new case against 10 oil product retailers.

(61.7684 rubles – U.S. $1)

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