Compromise Bill on Inland Water Transport Excluding River Dues

12 Июл

Monday 09 July the Draft Law No. 2475а-д ‘On Inland Water Transport’ was registered to present a balanced stance by Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine (MIU) and river shipping market stakeholders (Nibulon company) in the matter of inland water transport (IWT) reforming.
“This bill is a compromise between MIU and MP Andriy Vadatursky, Nibulon. The IWT reform has been hot for long and we are getting late with passing this law for as much as four years, so the decision is taken to go to balance for the sake of the country’s transport system development”, Head of Reforms Support Office by MIU Oleksandra Klitina wrote on her Facebook page.
According to her, the basic compromise clauses of the Draft Law No. 2475а-д are removal of the river dues and the provision on establishing a public legal entity to service the river waterways. Moreover, the document envisages granting exclusive rights for river cabotage to Ukrainian flag vessels (except vessels flying flags having bilateral agreements with Ukraine), and banning any access to Ukraine’s IWT for the aggressor-state flag ships.
“The bill is perfected maximally to fit the EU norms and includes the requirements of small ships and pleasure craft”, added Ms Klitina. The bill was initiated by 17 MPs including Yarislav Dubnevich, Borys Kozyr, and Ihor Kononenko.
In February 2018 Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) declined in the first reading the the Draft Law No. 2475а ‘On Inland Water Transport’ (216 votes for) and the alternative one No. 2475а-3 (159 votes for), thus returning the documents for re-consideration.
The bill No. 2475а pushed by MIU constitutes a dedicated sectoral law in the field of IWT, in particular regulating the IWT activities, utilization of river waterways and their shorelines for navigation, relationships concerned with employment of river-going vessels, river-sea vessels, small, sports and pleasure river craft during their sailing by IWT, establishing the legal framework for IWT infrastructure sites.
Besides that, the bill ascribes the funding sources for maintenance, repair, and reconstruction of navigational hydraulic structures on account of the owner(s) of hydro-power plants in the Dnipro power chain; envisages ships exemption from payments for the locks’ use; determines conditions for exemption from sea port dues for the vessels performing IWT voyages; defines the sources to compensate investments by economy subjects into IWT infrastructure objects; provides for exemption from payments for bridges opening; and implements the automatic registry of river transportations. “This is just the pattern of maintaining IWT that is implemented in the EU countries”, says the explanatory note to the bill.
Moreover, it provides for the establishment of a public legal entity to service river waterways, maintenance and use of IWT public infrastructure assets, river information service on account of river dues, the state budget, canal dues.
The alternative Draft Law No. 2475а-3 pushed by the MPs Andriy Vadatursky, Oleh Liashko, Roman Semenukha et alii, above all, bans the access of foreign flag vessels to inland waterways of Ukraine, excludes the river dues provision, and eliminates the excise duty on the ships fuel used by the river fleet.

Source: https://ports.com.ua/news/zaregistrirovan-kompromissnyy-zakonoproekt-o-vnutrennem-vodnom-transporte