The law On Amendments to the Federal Law On Concession Agreements and Certain Laws of the Russian Federation has been drawn to implement the President’s executive order No Pr-767 of 24 March 2012, Clause 2, Paragraph B.
The draft laws amends the federal laws On Concession Agreements, On the Protection of Competition and On the Privatisation of Government and Municipal Property, which are aimed at developing public-private partnerships on concession agreements.
The draft law is a measure planned to boost economic growth and envisages:
- the expansion of the concessor’s payments to the concessionary from motorways, as the acting legislation envisages, to the entire range of concession agreement objects, which will allow for the implementation of TIF investment projects where private investors’ expenses on infrastructural construction are reimbursed by tax revenues from the implementation of the aforementioned projects as a whole. It has been envisaged to use the Investment Fund of the Russian Federation as a tool of financial reimbursements for the investor/concessionary;
- the opportunity of economic or operations management of concession agreement projects by government or municipal unitary enterprises and state-funded or autonomous companies;
- the opportunity of several persons’ participation on the concessor’s side, the concessionary’s preferential right of purchasing the concession agreement object after the agreement expires, and the opportunity for changing the essential terms of the concession agreement on the concessionary’s demand;
- the extension of the list of concession agreement prerequisites, particularly by adding the concessionary’s gross revenues obtained in the implementation of the concession agreement, and guarantees regarding the reimbursement of the concessionary’s investments;
- the opportunity of concluding a concession agreement upon a private investor’s initiative to simplify tenders.
With the same end in view, a norm is introduced in the federal law On the Protection of Competition, according to which the granting of state or municipal guarantees and property rights to the concessionary by the concessor shall not be a state or municipal preference and shall not demand approval by the anti-monopoly agency.
The draft supplements the federal law On the Privatisation of Government and Municipal Property, envisaging the concession law appointing the pattern of privatisation of concession agreement property after the agreement expires.
The legislative amendments are aimed at expanding the use of concession agreements at the federal, regional and municipal levels.
The draft law was discussed and approved at the Government meeting on 5 February.
