Ukrzaliznytsia's plans to increase freight tariffs could lead to a reduction in production, job losses and a decrease in tax revenues to the budget.

This was stated by the president of the Ukrmetallurgprom association, Alexander Kalenkov, during the round table “Increasing tariffs of Ukrzaliznytsia: risks for the mining industry and the economy,” organized by the National Association of the Mining Industry of Ukraine.

He emphasized that the issue of tariff policy must be considered comprehensively - taking into account the state of the economy, the competitiveness of Ukrainian enterprises and the consequences for the state budget.

Kalenkov recalled that today freight transportation actually compensates for the losses of the passenger segment, and noted: the deficit in passenger transportation of Ukrzaliznytsia exceeds UAH 25 billion per year, while government funding covers only part of these costs.

“If industrial enterprises begin to stop production due to rising logistics costs, the state will lose significantly more funds in the form of taxes, foreign exchange earnings and jobs than it will receive from the tariff revision,” he emphasized, citing.

Kalenkov also drew attention to the significant reduction in the cargo base of Ukrzaliznytsia.. If before the full-scale war the company transported more than 300 million tons of cargo per year, now this figure has almost halved. In such conditions, in his opinion, an increase in tariffs could lead to a further drop in traffic volumes.

Separately, the round table participants emphasized that Ukrainian enterprises are already operating under significant pressure due to the war, loss of sales markets, rising production costs and new European regulatory restrictions, in particular the CBAM mechanism, and called on the authorities to look for balanced solutions for the financial stability of Ukrzaliznytsia, which will not create additional burden on manufacturers and exporters.

Earlier, the State Enterprise "