OREANDA-NEWS. On April 14, 2009 Anatoly Golomolzin, Deputy Head of FAS Russia, gave a press conference at the Press-Centre of the Rossiiskaya newspaper, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The press conferences focused on the initiatives and proposals of the Antimonopoly Service for improving the provisions of the Law "On Natural Monopolies", some of which have already been adopted as part of the "second antimonopoly package" of legislative acts approved by the Government and currently under consideration by the State Duma.

The Law "On Natural Monopolies" has been long the focus of attention of the antimonopoly bodies. The Law was devised by the antimonopoly authority in 1994, adopted in 1995 and put into practice in 1997. Since then, Russia has developed a unified system for regulating natural monopolies. The Law covers all aspects of activities of natural monopolies, including railways, electric power industry, telecommunications and some other sectors, the exhaustive list of which is given in the Law.

Along with price regulation, the Law was used as the basis for advancing the reforms of natural monopolies in terms of separating naturally monopolistic segments and potentially competitive segments, developing competition in competitive segments and creating the necessary conditions for effective governmental regulation of natural monopolies.

Over the last years FAS Russia has undertaken major efforts jointly with antimonopoly authorities of other countries, in particular, within the scope of work of the Interstate Council on Antimonopoly Policy. All CIS countries have built their systems of regulating natural monopolies with due account for the Russian experience, when CIS partners have adopted similar laws.

Today FAS Russia sees the importance of introducing radical changes and additions to the Law "On Natural Monopolies" based on the understanding of the current situation and the prospects of economic development, as well as in light of the experience of antimonopoly enforcement in the sector of natural monopolies.

In the beginning of 2008, the Collegium of the Federal Antimonopoly Service concluded to revise the Law "On Natural Monopolies"; and FAS Russia formulated conceptual proposals on amending the Law. In 2009 the Law "On Natural Monopolies" was included in the draft legislation to be drawn up on a priority basis, as part of the competition development programme approved by the Government of the Russian Federation. Upon instructions of the Government of the Russian Federation, the authorized bodies (the Ministry of Economics, FAS Russia and the Federal Customs Service) are currently working on the new version of the Law.

FAS Russia has proposed a framework for the draft Federal Law "On Introducing Amendments and Additions to the Federal Law "On Natural Monopolies", providing for radical changing of the Law and introducing modern methods of regulation and control over natural monopolies.

The main idea of the draft legislation is to develop the system of statutory regulation of natural monopolies that ensures reliable, effective and high-quality provision of goods and services to consumers, increase transparency of natural monopolies and create conditions for enhancement of competition.