MIU has put forward new requirements for river pilots

The Ministry of Infrastructure has published a draft order “On pilotage along inland waterways”, which regulates the activities of pilots and the procedure for paying for their services.

The project was developed in order to implement the provisions of the Law “On Inland Water Transport”, which will come into force on January 1st. The document establishes the requirements for river pilots and candidates for this position, the procedure for the provision of pilotage services and the collection of pilotage dues, etc.

The act provides for the introduction of:

• regulations on pilotage along the waterway, which establishes the procedure for issuing a river pilot certificate, training candidates for this position, as well as obtaining a professional certificate;
• requirements for the state pilot organization, the procedure for the provision of services, the range of rights and obligations, the interaction of the pilot and the captain (navigator), as well as a model agreement on the provision of services for the pilotage of vessels along the IWT;
• the procedure for collecting pilotage dues, the form of a pilot’s receipt;
• the size of the pilotage dues for IWT.

The amount of pilotage dues is determined as the sum of the base dues rate and the product of the variable component of the rate by the distance of the pilotage in kilometers. This formula looks like this:

LZ = STb + STzm × S,

where LZ – the amount of pilotage dues for one pilotage, UAH;

STb – the size of the basic rate of pilotage dues for one trip, UAH;

STzm – the size of the variable component of the pilotage dues rate, UAH/km;

S is the distance of the pilot wire, km.

As indicated by the MIU, the size of the basic rate of pilotage dues is UAH 30.5 thousand (USD 1.1 thousand) (excluding VAT) for each pilotage.

The variable component of the pilotage dues rate is UAH 45.20 (USD 1.65) (excluding VAT) for each full kilometer of pilotage.

For the implementation of the pilotage of a vessel on inland waterways more than 1000 km in one direction, the pilotage dues are levied in an amount equal to the pilotage dues for navigating the vessel over a distance of 1000 km.

From January 1st, 2023, the amount of pilotage dues is subject to annual indexation. More details on the document can be found on the MIU website.

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