Perfect monopoly: KTZh will endlessly keep raising tariffs.

Kazakh exporters are ringing the alarm: since the beginning of the year JSC NC KTZh has increased the tariff for services of the main railway network by 5%. In addition, KTZh-Gruzovye Transportation LLP has submitted an application to increase the tariff for locomotive traction services by 35%, reports World of NAN with reference to NCE.

This is despite the fact that in 2023 railway tariffs for freight transportation were raised three times (for services of the mainline railway network - by 5% from January 1, 2023 and by 28.4% from April 27, 2023, for locomotive traction services - by 11.4% from November 6, 2023).

The increase in tariffs will affect primarily those sectors of the economy for which rail transport is the key way of transportation of raw materials and products - these are mining and metallurgical, coal and agricultural sectors.

"Last year was already extremely difficult for agriculture, and the increase in tariffs KTZh coupled with the provision of certain countries with preferential tariffs for transit through the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan similar products will lead to higher prices of Kazakh products in the markets of neighboring countries and make it even more non-competitive," - said the director of the department of agribusiness NCE Yerken Naurzbekov.

According to Yadykar Ibragimov, president of the National Association of Oilseed Processors, higher export tariffs could lead to the bankruptcy of a number of Kazakhstani oil refineries.

"We ship our products to a greater extent in the export direction and compete with suppliers from the Russian Federation. One of the indicators of competitiveness is the cost of transportation of goods by rail. Accordingly, if the cost of transportation of goods in the export direction increases, we will simply withdraw from the market. Oil plants will be forced to stop their work. If we take into account the low demand on the domestic market for oil and fat products, most of the processing enterprises will go bankrupt," summarized Ibragimov.

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