Fine for negligence at fuel and energy facilities could rise to a million

MPs call for tougher penalties

A group of deputies of the lower house of parliament from United Russia proposes to make the punishment for non-compliance with the requirements for ensuring security and anti-terrorist protection at the facilities of the fuel and energy complex (FEC) more significant. On Wednesday, January 18, they submitted to the State Duma a bill providing for a significant increase in fines for this violation.

As it became known to MK, the bill applies to those fuel and energy facilities for which hazard categories are approved – low, medium and high. In accordance with the Code of Administrative Offenses, citizens and legal entities are fined for non-compliance with security requirements, and officials may also be disqualified. The National Guard is responsible for monitoring compliance with the rules. In 2017, when the department began supervisory activities, inspections showed that only 8.3% of fuel and energy facilities (out of 2,431 facilities) met safety requirements. Since then, the situation has improved markedly, now more than a third of them meet the requirements, but recently the dynamics of improvement has noticeably fallen. According to parliamentarians, this happened due to the fact that it is easier for the owners of strategically important facilities to pay fines than to spend money on ensuring their security and anti-terrorist protection.

The most modest fine for violations is expected for citizens responsible for compliance with the rules at facilities of a low degree of danger – from five to ten thousand rubles (now – from three to five thousand), the highest – for legal entities in charge of objects of a high degree of danger – from six hundred thousand up to one million rubles (now – from one hundred to three hundred thousand).