Agenda: Financing child benefits for parents of children aged 8–17; preparation for launching aggregated child benefits for parents of children aged 17 and younger; purchasing school buses and ambulance vehicles for the regions; financing the elimination of landfills in the Omsk Region; the Russian Railways investment programme and financial plan; subsidising agricultural shipments at concessional railway rates.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks
Report by Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev
Excerpts from the transcript:
Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon, colleagues,
Government meeting
Let’s start our discussion with the issue of support for the families with children. On Tuesday, the President held a separate meeting on this issue, analysing the efficiency of the measures that have already been adopted. He emphasised that the main goal is to reduce as far as possible the threat of poverty for Russian families. With this aim in mind, we are building an integral system of support for them.
This year the Government will allocate another 27.5 billion roubles for monthly payments for families with children aged 8 to 17 . At the President’s initiative, this allowance will be granted to low-income families, starting in April, which will help almost 5 million children. They must receive the biggest targeted aid of the state in overcoming financial problems. I would like to ask you to closely monitor this in all regions of the country.
At the meeting, the participants also discussed the start of the uniform allowance for families with children from birth to the age of 17, which is to be issued starting on January 1, 2023. The President noted that the paperwork and the process of receiving this uniform benefit should be as understandable, simple and convenient for people as possible. Ms Golikova (addressing Tatyana Golikova) and Mr Kotyakov (addressing Anton Kotyakov), please take the implementation of this task under your personal control. I know that you are working closely on this issue.
There is one more social issue. We continue upgrading the fleet of school buses and ambulances. The President instructed us to provide the Russian regions with the required number of these vehicles. We have already allocated an additional sum of over 7 billion roubles for the purchase of at least 1,000 school buses and 900 ambulances. All of them will be made in Russia.
During working trips, we discussed the shortage of these important vehicles with a number of heads of Russian regions. They are particularly in demand in rural and remote areas, where the fleet is often worn out.
The vehicles must be purchased before the end of the year and delivered to the regions in the first quarter of next year. This will enhance accessibility of medical aid for local residents and allow children to get to their schools comfortably and safely.
Now a few words about environmental protection measures.
The Government continues implementing the Clean Country federal project, which is aimed, in part, at eliminating unauthorised landfills within city limits. The President instructed us to clear up 111 such landfills by the end of next year.
Today we will discuss allocating more than 500 million roubles to the Omsk Region for these purposes, that is, to eliminate two major landfills in the region’s capital. Earlier, this region received almost 300 million roubles for preliminary works needed for this project.
These funds come from collecting so-called labelled environmental duties from violators who inflict damage on nature sites.
Unauthorised landfills are a pressing problem for the region. It is also a serious problem for the environment. There are four unauthorised landfills in Omsk alone, covering around 190 hectares. They literally make people’s lives miserable.
Ms Abramchenko (addressing Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko), please monitor this matter carefully. The territory must be relieved of such impediments, in Omsk and in other Russian cities.
This meeting’s agenda includes a series of issues concerning railway operations. This strategic industry promotes the growth of the national economy, trade and workload for domestic industries, and the expansion of manufacturing cooperation. The Government is working across the board to achieve the key goals set by the President in this field.
Today we will discuss the investment programme and the financial plan for Russian Railways for the next year. The planned total scope of the investment programme exceeds 1.7 trillion roubles, which is a record in itself.
Russian Railways is one of the largest ordering customers for small and medium-sized businesses, creating jobs in machine engineering, the mining and processing industries, and in IT.
This year, we have made the necessary decisions to ensure that Russian Railways can continue its balanced operations amidst the unprecedented external sanctions. We allocated an additional 250 billion roubles in capital investment. We also permitted deferments on insurance contributions. As instructed by the President, we will soon alleviate the company’s debt burden by more than 200 billion roubles. We are discussing this matter and will come to a solution shortly.
These measures will allow us to maintain the momentum in modernising and expanding the mainline infrastructure, including developing international transport corridors.
The railway industry is facing ambitious goals such as building new logistics routes and ensuring technological independence. All these plans require substantial investment.
Minister of Transport Vitaly Savelyev will report on the key aspects of the financial plan and the investment programme for Russian Railways in more detail.
The next subject is organising the logistics of agricultural freight.
The President focused on the problems caused by the sanctions in this area. He has set the task of sorting out these matters in an appropriate way.
To help farmers, we are subsidising the shipping of agricultural products with reduced railway rates. This year, the Government has allocated about 5 billion roubles for this purpose.
Today, we will add another 800 million roubles, which will make it possible to ensure agriculture shipping by rail. This includes the fertilisers and seed grains farms need as well as the transport of vegetables, fruit, flour, fish, and other food products.
This funding will help agricultural producers reduce transport costs and deliver their products in a timely and delay-free manner from Crimea to the Russian Far East.
Now let’s start the discussion.
We will now hear a report on Russian Railways’ financial plan and investment programme by Minister of Transport Vitaly Savelyev.
Vitaly Savelyev: Mr Mishustin, colleagues.
The 2023 financial plan and investment programme for Russian Railways has been through all the necessary discussions at the Government of the Russian Federation. The programme takes into account the balance of interests of the state and the business community.
We are submitting the main indicators in the financial plan and the investment programme at this meeting.
This year, the Government has adopted five key decisions to balance the activities of Russian Railways and create investment sources. Mr Mishustin, you mentioned this in your opening remarks, and I will only go into a bit more detail.
First, 250 billion roubles has been allocated from the National Wealth Fund (NWF) to increase the Russian Railway’s authorised capital and thus finance the investment programme.
Second, Russian Railways’ registered capital has been increased by 18.3 billion roubles based on allocations from the NWF to be used to develop the railway infrastructure at the Central Transport Hub.
Third, insurance contributions have been delayed by three months, which has produced a combined effective deferment of up to 42 billion roubles.
Fourth, shipping rates were adjusted by 11 percent as of 1 June of this year and a decision has been taken to suspend the decreasing coefficient for coal exports until the end of this year.
Fifth, it has been decided to increase Russian Railways’ authorised capital by 217 billion roubles, based on allocations from the NWF, in order to reduce the company’s debt burden.
All the measures to receive additional funding must be carried out before the end of the year. As a result, Russian Railways will reach all the main Government-required indicators in 2022.
The 2023 financial plan is based on the parameters of the socioeconomic development forecast and large-scale projects related to infrastructure development.
We coordinated the traffic volumes with the Ministry of Economic Development. We forecast a slight decrease – about 1.2 percent as compared with 2022 – in terms of freight rail transport. Passenger traffic volumes continue to be restored.
Maximum shipping rates will be increased by 8 percent in 2023. Importantly, in our plans for 2023, we considered an additional 2 percent commodity surcharge on major maintenance. We also decided to keep the earlier adopted decision on export coal shipping rates, which will ensure faster growth rates, revenue over expenses, for Russian Railways. In 2023, the company will spend 2.15 trillion roubles. Having analysed this figure within its competence, the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service confirmed that these expenses are justified.
The financial plan includes a programme of projects to make the company more efficient. The effect is expected to exceed 47 billion roubles. The EBITDA is expected to reach 637 billion roubles in 2023, which is more than a 27 percent increase over this year. These parameters will make it possible to create sources for funding the investment programme in full – at a level of 1.74 trillion roubles in 2023, which is almost a third more than in 2022.
Under the plan for 2023, investment will be made in the following main areas: over 40 percent of the investment programme, or 440 billion roubles, will be channeled into projects under the Comprehensive Plan for the Modernisation and Expansion of the Trunk Infrastructure. Of this amount, 250 billion roubles will be allocated for the second stage of eastern lines. The 2023 target of 173 million tonnes in shipping capacity will be met in full.
In 2023, 350 billion roubles will be spent on upgrading railway infrastructure, of which 160 billion roubles will be used for the repair and maintenance of over 4,800 km of track. Funds for the purchase of rolling stock have been increased by 50 percent over the previously endorsed parameters and will exceed 202 billion roubles. Over 600 locomotives and 330 electric train carriages will be purchased with this money.
Another 15 billion roubles is a contribution to the charter capital of the Federal Passenger Company. These funds will be spent on 225 passenger carriages, and almost 9 billion roubles will go into social development projects.
I would like to emphasise that Russian Railways has always been socially oriented. Next year, the implementation of its investment programme will provide orders for related industries, thereby preserving at least 170,000 jobs.
The aggregate socio-economic effect of implementing the Russian Railways investment programme in 2023 will reach about 6.7 trillion roubles, including about 1.2 trillion roubles in additional tax revenue for the budget of the Russian Federation.
The purchase of new passenger carriages for long-haul trains will allow the company to put 45 new trains into service.
Sixty-two trains will be sent to the regions for commuter service. They will have comfortable modern carriages for quality service.
Mr Mishustin.
We are suggesting that the above parameters of the financial plan and the Russian Railways investment programme be used as guidelines in our work.
Mikhail Mishustin: This is a most important programme. We need to focus on implementing the projects that are part of creating or expanding the basic transport corridors, primarily, completing the plans for developing the eastern lines and building railway accesses to the seaports of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
It is also necessary to upgrade the passenger rolling stock. We have discussed this before. This will allow us to not only reach the President’s goals of providing transport support for the regions but also to fill domestic machine-building plants with orders. This will enhance the safety of railway transport and, most importantly, will make train travel more comfortable for our people.
