Статья посвящена альтернативной регистрации судов в Российской Федерации. В частности, рассматривается Российский международный реестр судов.
Like in many other countries, Russia reserves a number of maritime activities for ships sailing under the national flag, such as:
- trade on internal waterways;
- coastal trading and fishing; and
- other merchant shipping activities in internal and territorial waters.
However, following privatisation of the Soviet merchant marine in the early 1990s, many Russian ships were transferred to a range of flag of convenience jurisdictions, from Cyprus to Cambodia. There were many reasons for this exodus – not least the opinions of international financial institutions, which at that time considered (not unjustly) the Russian flag insufficiently safe and flexible for registration and enforcement of ship mortgages.
The principal practical solution to this dilemma is parallel registration. Parallel registration of ships under the Russian flag was first made possible in 1999, when the current Merchant Shipping Code replaced the 1968 Soviet Merchant Shipping Code. The new code made it possible for ships that are permanently registered under flags of other countries to be temporarily transferred to the Russian flag upon permission of the central authority responsible for merchant shipping (initially the Ministry of Transport, currently the Federal Service for Supervision of Transport). Thus, the Russian Bareboat Charter Register was created. The code states that a ship which is permanently registered under a foreign flag may be granted the temporary right to fly the Russian flag if the following conditions are met:
- The ship is bareboat chartered to a Russian national, company, municipality or state;
- The shipowner and holders of any registered mortgages or similar encumbrances over the ship have given written consent for temporary re-flagging;
- The laws of the state of principal registration do not prohibit parallel registration; and
- The right of the ship to sail under the flag of the state of permanent registration is or will be suspended for the term of parallel registration in Russia.
The principal condition under which the ship may be re-flagged is that it be chartered to a Russian entity. In most cases, such an entity is a commercial company registered in Russia; it may be owned by either a Russian business partner of the foreign shipowner or the shipowner itself. Russian law is fairly lax with regard to the percentage of capital that may be held by foreign investors in Russian shipping companies – it may be up to 100% and, with few exceptions, no official approval is necessary to make such investments. In order to operate the chartered ships properly, the bareboat charterer must also comply with other applicable legal requirements for a shipping company, such as those regarding:
- necessary licences;
- safety policies; and
- qualifications of personnel.
The parallel ship registration procedure has been significantly simplified with the removal of the requirement that the permission of the central transport authority be obtained. Under the current rules, the bareboat charterer must file an application for re-flagging to the harbour master (ie, port administration) of the port of its choice (for fishing ships, this must be a port located in the same region in which the bareboat charterer's company is registered), together with certified copies of the following:
- a ship questionnaire outlining the ship's details;
- the bareboat charter agreement;
- an extract from the principal registry showing the registered owner of the ship and registered encumbrances;
- the shipowner's written consent to transfer the ship to the Russian flag;
- similar consent from the holders of registered encumbrances (if any);
- the ship's class documents;
- a confirmation from the underlying registry that the right of the ship to sail under the main flag is suspended or will be suspended for the period in which the ship will be sailing under the Russian flag; and
- documents confirming the applicant's status as a Russian authority, legal entity or national.
The port authorities must assess these documents within three business days and if there is no reason to decline the application, the ship will be registered and issued a temporary certificate confirming the right to sail under the Russian flag. The certificate will be valid for a period in accordance with the duration of the bareboat charter, which may not be less than one year if the bareboat charter has been made specifically for the purpose of a change of flag.
Requirements for ships entered in the Bareboat Charter Register are in most respects very similar to those for ships whose principal place of registration is Russia. However, since 2006, bareboat chartered ships may also be registered in the Russian International Register of Ships (RIRS), which allows the operators of such ships to benefit from a special tax regime, among other benefits. The special tax regime allows for exemptions from:
- corporate profits tax;
- corporate property tax;
- transport tax;
- social taxes on crew salaries; and
- import value added tax and import duties.
These taxes are replaced by a state duty, which is payable at the time of the ship's registration and thereafter annually. Other benefits of the RIRS include:
- the possibility for supervision over ships registered in the RIRS to be handled not only by the Russian Register of Shipping, but also admitted foreign classification societies (currently, Bureau Veritas and Germanischer Lloyd); and
- the possibility to insure any risks related to such ships and their operations with foreign underwriters (the general legal requirement is that Russian risks must be insured with licensed Russian insurance companies).
However, certain limitations apply in respect of ship registration in RIRS:
- Ships that are intended for towage and carriage of goods or passengers may not be older than 15 years.
- Unless the ship in question was built in Russia after January 1 2010, it may be used only for:
- carriage of goods and passengers;
- towage; or
- engagement in or support for the exploration and extraction of seabed mineral resources, hydro-technical works and submarine works.
RIRS registration must be annually confirmed and extended by payment of the respective state duty.
Автор: Alexander Mednikov
Источник: http://www.internationallawoffice.com/newsletters/detail.aspx?g=9cc83aad-23b3-4370-9073-5853515a22db&utm_source=ilo+newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=shipping+%26+transport+newsletter&utm_content=newsletter+2012-09-05
