MIU proposes a new draft order on port dues

The Ministry of Infrastructure has published a draft order “On amendments to the Procedure for the collection and amount of port dues rates”.

The draft order proposes to amend the Collection Procedure, exempting from paying canal dues vessels that, when fully loaded, have a draft of no more than 4 meters, carry out coastal or foreign navigation and are classified, according to the classification certificates, as inland or mixed navigation vessels.

Earlier, Ukrrichflot adressed to the District Administrative Court in Kyiv with a lawsuit against the Ministry of Infrastructure for recognition as unlawful and invalid from the moment of adoption of the order of the MIU dated June 25th, 2019 №459, in particular, subparagraph 2 of paragraph 1, which did not indicate that a vessel of foreign navigation may be exempted from the canal dues if it is classified, according to the classification documents, as an inland or mixed navigation vessel.

Thus, the order created discriminatory conditions for the economic activity of sea carriers on the basis of the criterion of vessels entering a foreign port, despite the same technical characteristics and the Ukrainian flag as those of vessels engaged in coastal navigation only.