OREANDA-NEWS. Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, said today in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, that in October 2007, the Council for Rail Transport of CIS States (CRT CIS) and the Baltic states plan to consider increasing tariffs for using wagons of railway administrations.

"At the final session of the meeting of the Council, a decision was taken to increase tariffs for using freight wagons by 15% on average from 1 January 2008", said Yakunin.

Yakunin emphasised that the decision had been agreed with all the CIS railway administrations except for Ukraine.

"It was suggested to the Ukrainians that they agree to increase tariffs or put forward their own proposals before the next session of the Council. The tariffs are close to commercial prices, and we propose increasing them gradually and reviewing them once a year. We need these increases to pay for the purchase of new wagons, whose cost has been rising every month recently", said Yakunin.

The Council also resolved to postpone until the next session the question of fines for using specialised wagons other than for their correct purpose.

"This item, which provides for a fine of 2,000 Swiss francs for each wagon, was not approved by the Georgian delegation", said Yakunin.

"In 1 Q 2007 alone, Georgian Railways used more than 500 grain carriers belonging to Russian Railways to transport alumina, Azeri Railways used 32 tank cars belonging to Russian Railways to transport chemicals, and over 300 grain carriers belonging to the railways administrations of Kazakhstan and Latvia transported cement on Uzbekistan Railways", said Yakunin.

The next session of the Council for Rail Transport of CIS States (CRT CIS) will be held in mid-October 2007 in Baku.