Tuesday, September 15 2020 17:05

ArmInfo. The amendments to the law "On highways" submitted to the National Assembly of Armenia are rather ill-considered, and can significantly and senselessly increase the costs of transport companies and severely hit the  efficiency of a number of industries, and first of all, the mining  industry in Armenia. Gagik Aghajanyan, Executive Director of the  large forwarding company "Apaven", expressed this opinion in an  interview with an ArmInfo correspondent.

As Aghanjanyan informed, the bill submitted for consideration to the  National Assembly, which provides for the introduction of a transport  payment of up to 50 AMD per kilometer for heavy vehicles with a  tonnage of 12 tons and above, will lead to the fact that dump trucks  carrying mining concentrate from the Zangezur copper-molybdenum  company (ZCMC) will have to pay, according to rough estimates, up to  5 million drams per year. And this is a huge amount, which is  unjustifiably high, and in fact unaffordable for transport companies.  According to the expert, the authors of the amendments did not take  this industry into account at all when drawing up the amendments.  They did not take into account the fact that in comparison with the  same Russia, with which Armenia has the most intensive cargo traffic,  this tariff of 50 AMD per 1 km is totally inadequate. According to  the experts' estimates, the travel of a heavy truck to the Armenian-  Georgian border and back will cost about $ 40, while travel through  the territory of the Russian Federation of 1,500 km and back will  cost 80 dollars using the 'Platon' system. "At the same time, our  officials ignore this circumstance and refer to the experience of  Germany, which is too funny for words," Aghanjanyan stressed.

According to the expert, the provisions of the law on permissible  loading rates also have major drawbacks.  These are restrictions  allegedly aimed at maintaining roads and road surfaces. It is  proposed, in particular, "taking into account international  experience", to introduce a restriction on the passage of vehicles  weighing more than 44 tons with a maximum load of 11.5 tons on one  axle. At the same time, a separate permit will be granted for all  cargoes that exceed this weight, as well as for indivisible cargoes  exceeding the stipulated tonnage. The axle load should be no more  than 16 tons, which is absurd for modern large- sized road transport.  If we follow this logic, it is more efficient to transport goods in  the country only with "KAMAZ" s of the Soviet model. "It turns out  that the old Kamaz, which costs 5-6 thousand dollars on the market  with 3 axles, can carry 18 tons, while companies that purchase modern  trucks for 150 thousand euros weighing 16 tons can only load them  with 16 tons of cargo. Isn't it absurd?,  the head of Apaven.  notes.

According to him, if the new regulations are followed, the cost of  transporting a ton of concentrate cargo will rise from $ 30 to $ 35,  while half a million tons are exported. Moreover, the lion's share of  forwarding costs is already spent on expensive fuel. In fact, fuel  consumption will increase by 87%, the wages fund will increase by  47%, companies will be forced to almost double their car park to meet  contractual obligations with the customer. Traffic on the roads will  increase, and it will be unprofitable to modernize the fleet with  modern large-scale environmentally friendly vehicles.

According to Aghajanyan, these truly absurd provisions are revealed,  unfortunately, not before, but after the government submits its draft  law to the parliament, and even after the parliament adopts them. The  same can be said about other amendments to this law already adopted  in February of this year. The expert believes that the problem is  that government departments do not bother to hold serious  consultations and hearings with professional market participants, and  it seems that they are either rewriting some provisions from foreign  (usually European) legal regulations, or, even worse - add fiscal  provisions, being completely unaware of the specifics and real state  of the country's transport market.

As Aghajanyan said, as a result of the belated meetings, the involved  departments basically agreed that they had not taken into account a  lot when preparing amendments to the law and promised to correct the  mistakes. The head of the company expressed hope that the government  will revise the new regulations and restrictions as soon as possible,  excluding provisions that are absurd and harmful for the economy.