The Grain Union of Kazakhstan announced exorbitantly high tariffs set by the owners of access railway lines.
Chairman of the Grain Union of Kazakhstan Nurlan Ospanov said that two companies that own access roads have set draconian prices for their use, which affects the competitiveness of domestic grain, an inbusiness.kz correspondent reports.
Currently, the government is carrying out inspections of the activities of entities providing services in the field of access roads, including in terms of pricing the cost of services in order to take measures to reduce unreasonably high tariffs. According to the press service of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, from March 1, the tariffs of the Transport Service Center JSC, the largest balance holder of access roads, will be significantly reduced. At the same time, according to the union, the tariffs set by Kaskor-Transservice JSC and SKO LesCom LLP are ruinous.
JSC "Kaskor-Transservice" owns all railway tracks in the industrial zone, as well as a railway track 15 km from Aktau-port station to two terminals in JSC "NC" Aktau Commercial Seaport: JSC "Ak-Bidai terminal" and LLP "Aktau Marine Northern Terminal" in the Mangistau region.
The rates of JSC "Kaskor-Transservice" are included in the price of transshipment of grain and significantly increase its cost when exported from Kazakhstani ports. For comparison: the rate of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy JSC for the supply of 15 wagons to a distance of 15 km is 108 tenge in terms of a ton of grain. The current rates of Kaskor-Transservice JSC for the same services and at the same distance (15 km) in terms of a ton of grain are 819 tenge, or 7.5 times higher than the rates of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy JSC," explained Nurlan Ospanov in his letter addressed to the deputy of the Majilis Azat Peruashev.
Also in his appeal, the head of the KYC explained that, in their opinion, the current rates of SKO LesCom LLP at the Petropavlovsk station, whose services are used by at least 6 manufacturing enterprises, including 2 grain-receiving enterprises, also require an assessment for validity. These enterprises pay SKO LesCom LLP a fee for the right to use the access road owned by the LLP in the amount of 564 tenge in terms of a ton of grain. The length of the access road is no more than 5 km.
"In addition to the fee for the use of access roads, these enterprises pay station fees to the South Ural Railway in the amount of 18,914 tenge per wagon, or 270 tenge per ton of grain (the calculation was made for a distance of 12 km and shipment of 4 wagons). For comparison: a similar shipment to the KZH costs approximately 198 tenge in terms of a ton of grain.Thus, for all services within the station dues of the South Ural Railway, the enterprise pays 270 tenge in terms of a ton of grain for a distance of 12 km and an additional 564 tenge per ton of grain for the use of access roads owned by SKO LLP LesKom, at a distance of 5 km! This leads to a significant decrease in the competitiveness of grain-receiving and other production enterprises located at the Petropavlovsk station, which are forced to use access roads owned by SKO LesKom LLP, the chairman of the union emphasized.
In addition, in order to assess the validity of the current rates at Kaskor-Transservice JSC and SKO LesCom LLP, the Grain Union sent a corresponding letter to the agency for the protection and development of competition. In the hope that assistance will be provided in reducing monopoly high rates on the facts indicated in the appeal.
Taisiya Kolevid, Kostanay