The national center of state-private partnership (PPP) has prepared its proposals to the draft law of the Ministry of economy on the delimitation of the institutions of concession and public procurement. Experts suggest to mitigate the proposed office of the requirement about payment of the fees of the grantor only after object input in operation, allowing to obtain some of these funds to service the loans. The period during which the government will reimburse the investors under this payment mechanism in the PPP center is proposed to reduce from five to three years from the date of input of object in operation.While the economy Ministry negotiates with the agencies and discussing with business the bill delineates the institutions of concession and public procurement, the expert community offers their adjustments to this document. So, your suggestions (there is a “b”) in the Ministry of economy sent a PPP centre in the Ministry said that until not received them, but upon receipt of comments will be discussed “in due order”.We will remind, the forthcoming bill is a consequence of the dispute among the Department of the Federal Antimonopoly service (FAS). FAS advocated that with one hundred percent state funding reimbursement of costs of the investor is only possible after entering the facility and after a certain time. Moreover, the service proposed to prohibit sharing of fee by the concessionaire (no reimbursement from the budget of the investor’s cost after object input) and capital grant (funding part of the costs of the investor at the construction stage). The economy also has taken a less strict position, insisting on the simultaneous use of these tools (see “Kommersant” on 28 November 2019).The proposed office of the bill involves the use of a capital grant to cover 75% of costs of the investor for the creation of the object, while the cost of the grantor, he will be able to for a minimum of five years after its completion. In addition, it provides a new tool — a guaranteed minimum income is the money that will be paid to the investor if the income from the operation of the facility will be below the planned minimum. As explained “Kommersant” in the Ministry of economy, there is hope that the document will be adopted before the end of this year.The very appearance of the bill in the PPP center welcome — it covers the questions, “to improve the practice of implementation of PPP projects and reduce the risks of challenging projects,” said experts.However, some of the provisions they propose to soften. In the center of the PPP believe that the receipt of payment of the grantor only after the object creation may have a negative impact on the projects involving payment for availability (the government sends the investor a payment for the possibility of exploitation of the object),— in case of delay in commissioning of project investor will not be able to repay their loans because of the lack of cash flow from the state. Instead, it is proposed to provide the possibility of payment of that amount — on loans — before entering the facility, and the term of payment of the state fee by the concessionaire to reduce from five to three years.The size of the grant in the centre are to increase from 75% of the cost of object creation to 85%. This is especially true for social projects, in which future income of the investor is not allowed to recoup the costs incurred, and the financial participation of the state is over 80%. Note, now, according to the platform “Rosinter”, 217 implemented projects in the social sector, investments in them are estimated in 136,8 billion rubles Total, according to “Rosinter”, in the framework of concessions are implemented 2.7 thousand projects with a total investment of not less than 2.15 trillion rubles., of which private accounts for 1.5 trillion rubles. But now, says the Executive Director of the PPP center Maxim Tkachenko in all regions of reduced investment activity and is working on optimizing infrastructure programs (however, the majority still considers concession as a crisis mechanism). The PPP center forecast that the market concessions will be restored in 2021 or 2022, but the amount of investment will be reduced because most of the “mega-projects” will be implemented either for the state account, or will be postponed for two or three years. Authorities believe that while concessions are not well developed in the beginning of the year, the economy Ministry noted that Russia continues to experience a lack of investment in infrastructure. According to Ministry’s estimates, in the 2020-2040 years, the deficit will annually be about 1.9% of GDP, which is more than even the current volume of investment (the Department estimates about 1.6% of GDP).Eugene Kryuchkov
