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Posted On

09
November
2021

Infrastructure Ministry wants to abolish ship lock fees

KYIV. Nov 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The draft order on amending the rules for passing ships through the navigable locks of Ukraine promulgated by the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine provides for the abolition of fees for the passage of ships through the navigable locks of Ukraine.

According to an explanatory note, the document was drafted with the aim of bringing the normative legal acts in line with the provisions of the law on inland water transport (No. 1054-IX), which, with the exception of certain provisions, comes into force on January 1, 2022.

"The implementation of the order will allow ships to be exempted from locking fees and bring the terms that are used in the rules for the passage of ships through the navigable locks of Ukraine in accordance with the law of Ukraine on inland water transport," the Ministry of Infrastructure emphasizes.

The draft order envisages bringing the terms "small vessel" and "high-speed vessel" in line with the above law and excluding the norms by which ships were obliged to pay the cost of the lock service, as well as have on board a document certifying the payment for the cost of the lock service.

According to the ministry, the abolition of the locking fee should lead to the reorientation of part of the freight traffic from roads to the inland waterways, which will accordingly increase the service life of the road surface, and also ensure that Ukraine fulfills the Green Deal vectors and reduces harmful emissions, since according to their indicators, water transport is the most clean means of transport.

In addition, the Ministry of Infrastructure expects that citizens will benefit both in the short and long term as a result of the abolition of compulsory locking fees, which are inherently included in the ticket price for passenger river transport and in the tariff for the carriage of goods, due to the likely reduction in service prices.