The Ukrzaliznytsia public railway company intends to raise freight rates to 15% on 1 March if it receives approval from all the relevant agencies. Minister of Infrastructure Andrii Pyvovarskyi announced this during a meeting with grain traders at Ukrzaliznytsia, the CFTS correspondent reports.
"Rates will be raised on 1 March if we receive all the relevant approvals on time," said the minister.
According to him, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and the Ministry of Finance have already approved the proposed rate increase.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia planned to raise freight rates in two stages in 2016: by 30% on 1 January and by 15% on 1 July. However, it had difficulty securing approval for the planned rate increase.
Minister of Economic Development and Trade Aivaras Abromavicius proposed in late January that the plan should be limited to only a 15% increase for all freight transporters in the near future and that further increases should be postponed until the situation is analyzed in greater detail.
"According to the conclusions of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the proposed rate increases will add only 0.23 percentage points to the industrial price index, and it will not contradict the macroeconomic forecasts prepared by the ministry," the Ministry of Finance said in mid-January, when it approved the 15% rate increase.
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