Ministry of economy tries to solve the problem of unrecorded liabilities of the state and investors in the concessions, effectively creating a registry of such agreements on the basis of the state automated information system (GUS) “Management”. Now accurate estimates of these liabilities does not exist, the scatter is quite significant — from 300 billion to 3 trillion rubles to Implement the system of monitoring the Agency proposes a phased approach, starting with agreements at the Federal level. Further, within two years it will “dive” regional and municipal concessions.The economy Ministry proposes to increase transparency of concessions, gradually running the monitoring undertaken in the framework of the obligations of the investors and the budget. As follows from the last published draft decree of the government, all the information about the characteristics and terms of input of objects, the structure and sources of financing of expenses on their creation, about the measures of state support and the sources of repayment of investments of the concessionaire should be reflected in the SAS “Administration”.State agencies have entered into with investors of the concession agreement, will have to make all of this information in the system within 10 working days and to update them as of 1 January and 1 July of each year. To introduce such monitoring of the economy in stages, starting with concessions at the Federal level since the entry into force of the developed regulations. Agreements with the regions is scheduled to begin to “immerse” in the gas from 1 July 2021, with municipalities from 1 July 2022.In this regard, the Ministry of economy proposes to give the Treasury the authority to establish the order of evaluation of the budget commitments in the concessions and on carrying out such an assessment.As follows from the explanatory note to the draft, to enter a new order of economy in the framework developed by the Ministry of Finance plan to implement the valuation procedure the budget commitments on PPP projects. Note, during the discussion of the new investment framework agreements on the protection and promotion of investments — the Institute of concessions have been repeatedly criticized in connection with the opacity of it account obligations of the budget system.So, as of the end of the 2019 estimate of the amount of risk assumed by the budget system under the agreements on PPP and concessions ranged from 300 billion to 3 trillion rubles.— the registry of such obligations does not exist.As suggested by the partner of the law firm “Kachkin and partners” Denis Kachkin, this approach will allow for direct budgetary obligations — for example, capital grant (hotplates in the construction phase) and payment of the grantor (reimbursement of costs of the investor from the budget after the completion of the object). “There is a large amount of unpredictable indirect costs — payments as a result of the special circumstances, whiche most often borne by the grantor”,— says Denis Kachkin. He adds that such costs budgetits after the occurrence of such circumstances. In a well-structured concession agreements provide for their threshold — if it is exceeded, the state can withdraw from the project.Unaccounted budgetary commitments are not the only problem of the concession mechanism. Earlier, the economy Ministry and the Federal Antimonopoly service (FAS) argued how to distinguish between concessions and public procurement. FAS advocated a rather rigid option: when full funding cost recovery is possible only after the commissioning and after a certain time, plus the ban on sharing fees of the grantor and capital grant.The economy Ministry last year, by contrast, involves the simultaneous use of two instruments — in order to cover the cost of object creation (see “Kommersant” on 28 November 2019). Now the Ministry, as reported by “Vedomosti”, proposes to use a capital grant to cover 75% of costs of the investor for the creation of the object, and the cost of the grantor will be available after the completion of construction for at least five years. Also introduces the concept of minimum guaranteed income — funds that will be paid to the investor if the revenue from exploitation of the created object will be below the planned minimum.Eugene Kryuchkov
