Russian Government stipulates rules for sale of quota shares

Russia's Federal Fisheries Agency has developed new rules for auctions of quotas for capture of aquatic biological resources, with the shares to be allocated for a period of 10 years as of 1 January 2009, reports www.fishnet-russia.com (www.fishnet.ru) with reference to Rossiskaya Gazeta.

The new rules have been drafted so as to take into account the negative experience of the previous quota auctions and to add transparency to the process of selling quota shares by auctions.

Under those rules the auctions will be conducted during a 10-year period of the shares' validity and the situations when the rights are subject for auction have been strictly specified. More specifically, the auctions will apply to the following cases:

• death of the quota share holder or his/her renunciation of the rights;
• deprivation of a particular company of the right for capture following two violations of the fishery regulations;
• suspension of the right for capture if the quota holder has been harvesting less than 50% of the quota two years running;
• need to distribute new quota shares.