TIS plans to appeal in court the decision of the Ministry of Infrastructure regarding shipping fees
4.05.2023 - 12:10
In Ukraine, since April 26, the permission for private companies to receive half of the shipping dues in the Pivdennyi seaport has been canceled. The largest stevedoring company of Ukraine, TIS, plans to appeal this decision in court.
On April 26, NABU announced the cancellation of the Ministry of Infrastructure’s regulations regarding the receipt by private companies of part of the ship dues in the Pivdennyi seaport.
Subsequently, the Ministry provided an explanation, motivating the decision by the lack of funding for the USPA during the war. TIS considers this decision illegal and intends to challenge it in court in the near future, the company said.
“We are the largest participants in the maritime freight transportation industry and the largest investors in the development of Ukrainian infrastructure – once again we receive extremely important information that directly affects thousands of our employees, not from a transparent dialogue with the state, not as part of consultations, but from the social networks of the law enforcement agency. This, among other things, gives us reason to consider the justification about the lack of funds in the USPA as fictitious, and the decision of the MIU dictated not by the interests of the industry, but by the pressure of the security forces,” the message reads.
TIS noted that the company’s enterprises are strategic participants in the Ukrainian economy. For 30 years, the company has invested more than $1 billion of its own funds in the development of the industry, but its interests and the importance of its contribution to the national economy are not taken into account when making important industrial decisions.
“We consider the cancellation of the norms of the order on the splitting of ship dues unreasonable, illegal and harmful to the strategic sector of the economy. Neglecting the interests of private investors discredits any efforts to attract capital to Ukraine,” TIS added.
The company said a portion of the shipping tolls it had been legally collecting for several years had been accumulating in an escrow account to keep the deeps in working and safe condition for navigation. The depths were created at the expense of “TIS” – from 1.5 meters to 15 meters – which opened access to the estuary for large ships and provided the state with additional revenues of more than $245 million in the form of port fees.
Private investors created a break-even point for the state and rightfully expected at least to share the costs of maintaining the depths.
“On the contrary, we have been checked by various power structures for years, we cannot use the funds from the target account as intended, and now even such an imperfect instrument of interaction between the state and the investor has been canceled. At the same time, for more than 5 years we have been waiting for the Ministry of Infrastructure to develop a more fair and economically justified procedure for compensation of private capital investments in areas that are the area of responsibility of state structures, but we have not received any reasons for optimism,” TIS noted.
The company plans to go to court to challenge the decision, which could close Ukraine’s opportunities to attract foreign investors for many years.
