Vodokanals will enter the capital – Newspaper Kommersant No. 156 (7357) dated 08.26.

The ban on the privatization of water supply facilities, introduced in 2013, is planned to be softened – in order to reduce such ownerless property, the Ministry of Construction proposes to allow its transfer to joint-stock companies (JSC), more than 50% of whose shares are in state or municipal ownership. In this way, a legal conflict will be resolved, which now does not allow JSCs, which are guaranteeing organizations, to accept objects on their balance sheet – and as a result, they are forced to rent them.

The Ministry of Construction proposes to allow, in the words of the department, “additional privatization” of water supply facilities. As follows from the draft law developed by him, such property can be contributed to the authorized capital of joint-stock companies, more than 50% of whose shares are in state or municipal ownership. To clarify, now JSCs sometimes act as guaranteeing organizations – and although they ensure the operation of centralized water supply systems, they cannot accept even a technologically related facility that is in state ownership on the balance sheet.

This problem arose after the introduction in 2013 of a ban on the privatization of water utilities. At that time, such a decision was explained, in particular, by the deplorable state of the industry and the possible dishonesty of private owners (it was planned to attract investments in the industry through concessions). Without a concession, a joint-stock company can receive objects for operation only under a lease agreement – however, as the Ministry of Construction notes, this entails additional costs for the regions, the guaranteeing organization itself (rent and insurance, as well as the inability to make depreciation deductions) and, accordingly, increases the financial burden on consumers.

According to the project, the introduction of objects into the authorized capital of a joint-stock company will be associated with obligations for the construction, reconstruction and modernization of objects – the depreciation amount on the received property can only be used to finance capital investments under the investment program. According to the Ministry of Construction, this should “deprive organizations of the ability to operate property without improving the consumer properties of the utility services provided to the population.”

The easing, the Ministry of Construction emphasizes, will not entail the loss of state control over the facilities – it will remain in an indirect form within the powers of the shareholder. In general, the Ministry of Construction explains its initiative with the desire to reduce the number of ownerless water supply facilities – there are no exact data, but, as the department notes, it is very significant. For example, now in Moscow about 360 ownerless objects identified last year are being processed.

The Russian Association for Water Supply and Sanitation (RAWW) told Kommersant that they support the initiative of the Ministry of Construction. “Currently, municipalities can transfer ownerless networks only to a unitary or municipal enterprise, but in territories where a JSC acts as a guaranteeing organization, there is no such possibility,” the association notes. There are few JSCs in the water supply sector, but there are also large guaranteeing organizations among them – in order to transfer property to them, you must first formalize it, and then conclude a concession agreement or lease agreement. However, they add to the RABB, there are also risks that the municipality will lease the object to a third party, with whom in this case the guaranteeing organization must conduct mutual settlements – this leads to a fragmentation of the water supply system. “The changes proposed by the Ministry of Construction will make it possible to keep the objects with one owner,” the association believes.

Evgenia Kryuchkova