OREANDA-NEWS. December 21, 2010. Executing Clause 44 of the Action Plan for the 2009-2012 Programme of Developing Competition in the Russian Federation, FAS Russia devised and submitted to the Government of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation a draft law “On Introducing Amendments to the Federal Law “On Natural Monopolies” and Some Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation”, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The draft law is aimed at improving the system of regulating natural monopolies, particularly:

Clarifying the concept of “natural monopoly”;

Defining the status of the Register of natural monopolies;

Determining the procedures for control over economic concentration;

Separating responsibilities of the bodies regulating natural monopolies;

Introducing the following methods to the system of government regulation of some industries: economically justified return on investment, comparative analysis and other “quasi-competitive” mechanisms, which provide for long-term tariffs generating acceptable rate of return on investment, as well as the mechanism stimulating cost reduction and maintaining a certain level of the quality of services;

Supporting effective procurement activities of natural monopolies by specifying mandatory tender requirement;

Splitting-off some type of works from natural monopolies that can be carried out by non-affiliated companies on a competitive basis;

Intensifying the efforts towards developing competition in the areas interfacing natural monopolies, particularly by splitting-off competitive activities and activities that have a character of a natural monopoly.

Apart from amendments to the Federal law “On Natural Monopolies”, the draft law proposes changes to the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” by adding provisions that prohibits constraining economically justified transition of a relevant market from the state of natural monopoly to competitive conditions and prevents infringement of the interests of other persons by natural monopolies.

These amendments will form the system of legislative regulation of activities of natural monopolies, which ensures reliable and efficient provision of goods to the consumers (including end-customers), enhance transparency of natural monopolies, create conditions for development of competition, and improve the quality of government regulation of natural monopolies.

The body of the draft law and explanatory notes to it are available in Russian on FAS website.