MOT does not work out – Newspaper Kommersant No. 49 (7494) dated 03/23/2023

The transfer of control over inspection operators from car insurers to the Federal Accreditation Service, initiated by the authorities, could lead to an increase in the cost of diagnostics for motorists, Kommersant found out. Such a scenario was proposed by the Ministry of Economy to the government to reduce state budget expenditures and reduce the expenses of maintenance operators.

In 2020, Senator Andrey Kutepov prepared a draft law on the transfer of authority for accreditation of TO operators from the Russian Union of Motor Insurers (RSA) to Rosakkreditatsiya (“Kommersant” talked about this document). Accreditation is a procedure for the operator to confirm their professional competencies: the availability of the necessary equipment, premises, staff, etc. This is an “unusual” activity for the RSA, Mr. Kutepov believes, the state structure will cope with it better. The idea is supported by the Central Bank and part of the TO market participants.

The Ministry of Economy last week sent to the White House a draft government opinion on a bill to be submitted to the State Duma (Kommersant got acquainted with the contents of the document). It proposes to support the approach proposed by the senator. Rosaccreditation, the department notes, will require additional staff and new digital services (a system for accreditation and a register of operators): funding should be allocated for this in 2023-2025. The amount is not named. In 2021, representatives of the Federal Accreditation Agency announced the need for an additional 250 million rubles. annually for the performance of new functions, according to Kommersant’s information, subsequently this amount increased several times. The Ministry of Finance did not agree on the allocation of money for this.

Today, the PCA takes 49 thousand rubles. for the initial accreditation of a company with one maintenance point. It is proposed to cover the arising costs without increasing the burden on operators and without burdening the state budget by increasing the tariff for technical inspection for motorists. According to Kommersant, we are talking about a small fixed amount from each car undergoing maintenance – within a few tens of rubles. Recall that since January 1, maintenance prices have already increased by an average of 57% in many regions (“Kommersant” wrote about this): in Moscow – from 720 to 913 rubles, in Kamchatka – from 840 to 1.33 thousand rubles ., in St. Petersburg – from 881 to 1.54 thousand rubles. According to the FAS methodology, which has been in force since 2022, prices must be reviewed annually.

The Ministry of Economy also proposed to enshrine in the bill the right of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to restrict the access of operators to the unified information system for technical inspection EAISTO, where electronic diagnostic cards are generated. The traffic police came up with this idea back in 2022 to strengthen the fight against scammers selling fake inspection results. The police support the bill.

From December 2021, MOTs are only mandatory for trucks, buses and taxis. Owners of a private fleet (individuals) must undergo maintenance in case of registration and re-registration of cars older than four years, as well as when making changes to the design of the car. According to the PCA, at the moment there are 3.5 thousand operators and 3.8 thousand technical inspection points in the Russian Federation.

The long delay in preparing the review (more than two years), according to Kommersant, was due to protracted disputes between the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Finance, in particular, insisted on the exclusion of the accreditation fee from the law on TO and its replacement with a fixed state duty. The department also did not agree with the idea of ​​allocating additional costs from the federal budget. The disagreements, according to Kommersant’s information, were settled at the end of 2022 by the decision of Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin: he decided that the review would be prepared on the basis of the proposals of the Ministry of Economy. However, it is too early to put an end to the issue: a Kommersant source familiar with the discussion of the issue explained that the draft recall still has to pass the government commission on administrative reform (it is headed by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko). This commission, according to Kommersant’s information, is the first time the document enters, each time officials try to expand funding and staff of the Federal Accreditation Service.

The Ministry of Finance did not respond to Kommersant’s request. Andrey Kutepov’s position on the preparation of the recall could not be found out.

The head of the Techexpert union, Sergei Zaitsev, who supports the bill on the transfer of powers to Rosakkreditatsiya, also supported the idea of ​​including additional government spending in the tariff. He recalled that a similar system existed until 2011: car owners paid for the services of the maintenance point and the state fee. If the Ministry of Economy had chosen a scenario with an increase in the cost of accreditation, this would have seriously hit the market, Mr. Zaitsev notes, and “many operators are now ruined anyway.” The head of the Union of technical inspection operators, Maxim Burdyugov, on the contrary, believes that accreditation should be retained by the RSA. “The professional community regards the decision to change the accreditation body as unfavorable and undesirable, since it carries the risks of prolonging the procedure, increasing financial costs associated with accreditation, and a sharp decrease in control over the activities of operators,” he says. getting practice, mistakes in the first two years are inevitable, and operators will suffer from this again. Commenting on a possible increase in the tariff, Mr. Burdyugov suggested that the total amount that the Ministry of Economy would collect would still not be enough for all the emerging government spending.

“In real life, the cost of the technical inspection procedure can be much higher than the official tariff, so an additional 30 rubles. will not affect the final expenses of car owners in any way,” says Piotr Shkumatov, coordinator of the Blue Buckets movement.

Ivan Buranov