Changes to freight railway transport tariffs are coming into force in Ukraine. The official publication of the decision is expected on July 31. This was reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing a statement from the state railway operator "Ukrzaliznytsya".
The document regulating the new prices has passed all necessary legislative approval procedures and was registered by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. The company emphasizes that this is the first tariff review since 2022, a measure necessitated by the ongoing war.
Economic pressure and inflation
The management of "Ukrzaliznytsya" explains the need for an increase by the rate of industrial inflation, which has more than doubled since the last indexation. At the same time, the company is forced to operate under conditions of critical resource shortages. During the hostilities, more than 460 locomotives have been damaged, and large-scale repair work requires constant financing.
Despite the difficult situation, train traffic has not ceased. However, the financial burden on personnel has reached a critical point: in the last two and a half years, the company has not been able to index the wages of railway workers. Currently, the level of remuneration in the industry has fallen to one of the last places among industrial sectors.
Compromise and stages of indexation
Initially, "Ukrzaliznytsya" proposed to raise tariffs by 45%. However, during negotiations, a compromise solution was reached: to carry out indexation in two stages. This will help smooth the blow to the economy and give shippers time to adapt to the new conditions.
It is important to note that the company refrained from reviewing prices for as long as possible. According to UZ experts, the delay in indexation over the last years provided shippers with an economic effect of more than 100 billion hryvnias. Even the indexation planned for January of this year was postponed to the second half of the year.
Impact on other sectors
The decision to raise tariffs is causing concern in adjacent sectors of the economy. The head of the Federation of Metallurgists of Ukraine, Serhiy Belenky, warned that the increase in transport costs against the backdrop of rising electricity tariffs could lead to a mass shutdown of enterprises in the mining and metallurgical complex.
In addition, experts predict that the increase in logistics costs for suppliers will be reflected in the end consumers. In particular, this could lead to an increase in the price of gasoline and diesel fuel in Ukraine.
To minimize damage, the company is implementing the largest cost optimization program in recent years with an expected economic effect of 10.2 billion hryvnias. Also, for the first time in history, a state order for domestic passenger transport has been introduced, for which up to 16 billion hryvnias has been allocated from the budget, which will allow not to transfer the losses of the passenger direction to freight transport.
