By optimizing the costs of Ukrzaliznytsia, it is possible to reduce freight tariffs by 20% from the current level, the federation said.
The draft order on the unification of tariffs for cargo transportation, which Ukrzaliznytsia sent to the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development, will have catastrophic consequences for the entire sector of the Ukrainian economy, state budget revenues, the loss of thousands of jobs and, as a result, will negatively affect in our country’s defense capability. This was stated in a letter from the Federation of Transport Employers of Ukraine (FRTU) to Prime Minister Denis Shmygal, published on Friday, September 13.
“The project provides an increase in tariffs for rail freight transportation: tariffs for ore and coal increased by +19%, coke +12%, grain freight +11% (including an increase for freight and empty flights) does not support the increase in freight rail tariffs, because now the tariffs Ukrzaliznytsia in US dollars has significantly exceeded the level at the beginning of the war (2019-2021). Tariffs for coal and ore have increased by more than 120%, for grain cargo the increase is 60%, and this is all since the beginning of 2019,” the letter said.
The FRTU emphasized that the increase in tariffs has become one of the main reasons why many businesses can no longer operate without losses. The constant increase in tariffs forces companies to reduce their production volumes, which leads to a decrease in the volume of freight transportation by rail and a transition to alternative means of transportation. The main losses of UZ are not from cargo transportation, but from passenger traffic: in 2024 they are expected to reach UAH 20 billion.
“Cargo transport shows positive dynamics of revenue from cargo transportation for 2023 reached UAH 74.2 billion, which is 11.2 billion more than in 2022, and the profitability of cargo transportation is 27%. in the first half of this year, the total revenue from cargo transportation increased by UAH 6.5 billion, to UAH 43 billion,” said the federation.
The letter is recorded by it Ukrzaliznytsia is faced with a constant artificial increase in costs: if in the first half of last year the total cost reached UAH 40 billion, then in the first half of 2024 – under UAH 50 billion. “Other operating expenses” also increased significantly – in the first half of 2024 by 78% (more than UAH 2.5 billion).
“The arguments given by UZ to justify the need to” unify” tariffs for rail transport do not stand up to criticism, because in fact we are not talking about creating fair conditions in economy and payment for actually provided services by a monopoly, but regarding others opaque and arbitrary increase in the cost of transportation Introduction a common, equalized tariff for all transportation, which will cover all the UZ costs, even those related to unprofitable segments of UZ activity that are not related to freight transport – this approach ignores the difference in real train costs between different types of transport, ” they said.
FRTU explained that transporting ore requires less UZ infrastructure than grain in prefabricated trains. For the mineral transportation route, 18 railway stations and 2.3 thousand km of main railway lines are used. For the transportation of grain in prefabricated trains there are more than 379 stations and more than 12 thousand km of tracks (80% of the total length). The sorting stations are not involved in the transportation of ore, but the transportation of grain in prefabricated trains requires the continuous operation of about 20 sorting stations.
“Thus, unit costs for route transport are significantly lower than for group trains. Therefore, tariffs should be differentiated rather than unified. The experience of EU countries shows that competition promotes efficiency, and monopoly tariffs are set in proportion to real costs, which should be the case in Ukraine,” the letter said.
The FRTU appealed to Denis Shmygal with a request to take into account the general situation in the Ukrainian economy and the critical situation with the main consumers of railway services, and take measures to reduce railway freight tariffs of 20% from the current level by optimizing costs Ukrzaliznytsia and taking steps to restore and increase the cargo base of this company.
Previously on Ukrzaliznytsia said that they earned more than 3 billion Hryvnia in six months, but in July and August the company faced a loss in the range of 600-700 million Hryvnia per month.
Naa Ukrzaliznytsia revealed the lack of railways, which could become critical in 2028.
Source: korrespondent
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