Amendments to investment quota programme and quota auctions finally drafted
Russi’s Ministry of Agriculture has finalized the draft law on the second stage of the investment quota programme and auctions of capture quotas with investment obligations. The amendments provide for the expansion of the list of commercial species for investment quotas to be auctioned and allocate additional volumes for investment quotas in the nation’s Far East.
According to Fishnews, the lawmakers keep on working under the amendments that create the basis for the quota redistribution. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rosrybolovstvo submitted such a bill in November — now some amendments have been made in the document.
It is still planned to continue the program of investment quotas in the Far Eastern Basin — with the allocation of additional volumes for these purposes. Moreover, part of the allowable catch will go to the participants of the first stage of the investment quota program — such an additive should serve as compensation for losses after a new cut in "historical" quotas.
At the same time, the wording for the objects of investment of the second stage in the law is now proposed as follows: "... fishing vessels built at Russian shipyards, or fish processing complexes, including enterprises as property complexes provided for in Article 132 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, intended for the production of fish products, built on the territory of the Russian Federation and fishing vessels built at Russian shipyards ...".
The foundation is being laid for new crab auctions with investment obligations — the list of objects that the winners of such auctions should build in Russia will be determined by the government.
It is proposed to extend the principles of such auction distribution to other types of aquatic biological resources. In the new version of the bill, it is no longer specified which specific objects these will be (previously it was about scallops, whelks, grey and black sea urchins and trepang), the list will be determined at the level of the bylaw. The developers also adjusted the name of the new type of quotas: now it is called "quotas for the extraction of shellfish and other aquatic biological resources for investment purposes."
A new version of the article on auctions for such quotas and changes to the current article on crab auctions are proposed.
It is planned to launch the second stage of the investment quota programme and quota auctions from 2023. Earlier, Rosrybolovstvo reported that it plans to continue discussing the types of aquatic bioresources and investment objects at a meeting in January.