The Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation suggests reducing from 13 to 5 the number of regions receiving subsidies for grain transportation by rail. The use of this support measure is proposed to be extended until June 30, 2019.
Now the privilege is valid for 13 regions: Voronezh, Kursk, Lipetsk, Orel, Tambov, Orenburg, Penza, Samara, Saratov, Ulyanovsk, Kurgan, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions. Of these, grain can be exported in the direction of the ports without charging freight from the consignors, with compensation for losses to the Russian Railways at the expense of the federal budget.
The Ministry of Agriculture proposes to exclude eight regions of the Central and Volga federal districts from the preferential list and prolong preferences only to Orenburg, Kurgan, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions. For the first two export limits are set at 150 thousand tons and 130 thousand tons of grain, for Novosibirsk region - 294 thousand tons, for Omsk - 350 thousand tons. In addition, the Krasnoyarsk Territory in the new season can be included in the list of subsidized regions (100 thousand tons of grain).
The agrarian ministry justifies this decision with the current conjuncture of the grain market and the forecast grain production in 2018. "Grain reserves in these regions as of May 1, 2018 amounted to 4.7 million tons, which is 25.4% more than last year. Thus, the production of grain in the new season, taking into account the carryover stocks will adversely affect the financial condition of agricultural producers," said in an explanatory note to the project.
Source: kvedomosti.ru.
