The current structure of income and expenses of Ukrzaliznytsia is deformed and does not correspond to European practice. This is what leads to the accumulation of losses and loss of cargo base.
The head of the State Enterprise " Also at a meeting of the Economic Committee of the Verkhovna Rada they presented the conclusions of research on the economic model of Ukrzaliznytsia and ways to improve it.
Experts compared the marginality indicators of Ukrzaliznytsia with the railways of Germany and Poland. If in Ukraine passenger transportation has a loss rate of about -150% of EBITDA, then among its European counterparts this segment is almost break-even or brings a symbolic plus in the range of 10–15%. But industrial transportation in Ukraine demonstrates excessively high margins – 38–40%, while in Germany this figure does not exceed 3%.
“This indicates the need for a phased, planned transition to a model where passenger transportation becomes close to zero profitability or has a small plus, and industry ceases to bear a disproportionately high tariff burden. Our economy is hostage to social populism. When the country produced 43 million tons of steel, the tariff increases were spread over a large volume. But today – only by 6 million tons,” he noted..
Experts say the key threat to Ukrzaliznytsia is the sharp dependence of freight volumes on tariff policy. According to their data, the correlation between an increase in tariffs and a drop in the freight base is 0.98, and each price increase encourages businesses to switch to motor transport. As a result, the company's expenses rise and revenues fall, which creates a "
Vlasyuk noted that point solutions will not solve the problem - an integrated approach is needed with accurate calculations of reserves and resources. Among the factors that could partially improve the situation, he named a reduction in the tax burden (in particular, land tax of about UAH 3 billion), the removal of the excise tax on fuel, as well as possible transfers from local budgets.
The solution for Ukrzaliznytsia is a multi-year restructuring plan with the involvement of all stakeholders, including the company’s board.
It is necessary to create a model that will ensure 5–10% marginal profitability, balance the passenger and industrial segments, and gradually eliminate the chronic unprofitability of passenger transportation.
As you know, Ukrzaliznytsia took the initiative to increase freight transportation tariffs by 40%.. At the same time, the Ministry of Economy opposed it: they stated that before raising tariffs for freight transportation, Ukrzaliznytsia must update the tariff collection, which has not been revised since 2009.
" Some of the cargo will end up on the roads or simply disappear due to the shutdown of enterprises,” the minister said..