Source: www.rucriminal.info
The second largest grid company in the Leningrad region, AO LOESK, is facing bankruptcy. So, on New Year's Eve, half of the region's residents are at risk of rolling blackouts. The nuance is that the company is thrown into the debt abyss by the intrigues of competitors and the inaction of regional authorities. Well, beyond the brackets - up to seven years of real time for the guilty.
In accordance with the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, all tariff decisions of the regions must be approved before December 1, 2022. In the Leningrad region, where more than two million people live, two largest electric grid companies operate: PJSC Rosseti Lenenergo and JSC LOESK. And if there are no complaints about the tariff regulation of the first, then the decisions of the regional authorities on the tariff for the second raise a lot of questions and directly lead to financial collapse.
Tomorrow, November 29, hearings on tariff regulation for 2023 are to be held at the Tariff Committee of the Government of the Leningrad Region. A few hands earlier, at a meeting in the government, JSC "LOESK" reported and substantiated its tariff application. However, officials announced the figure is almost two times less than necessary for the functioning of the energy company. It is not clear how, after such decisions of officials, a backbone company should perform its main functions.
Previously, https://vedomosti-spb.ru/partners/articles/2022/11/25/952062-elektrosetevie-kompanii-lenoblasti, the statements told about the distortions of tariff regulation in the Leningrad region, noting that the costs of maintaining power equipment of JSC "LOESK" in 2021 were were estimated by the Leningrad Region 8.5 times less than the similar costs of Rosseti Lenenergo. Also, according to the information available to the editors, JSC "LOESK" is planning to cut the amount of unjustified income of the company in an amount exceeding the turnover.
The reaction of all experts in the energy sector is the same and is characterized by the question - how is this even possible? After all, such a policy of tariff regulation by the authorities of the Leningrad Region leads to the deliberate bankruptcy of a large energy company that serves more than a million residents.
An important nuance is that we are talking about a criminal offense. After all, deliberate bankruptcy falls under the action. 196 articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. This is the commission of actions (inaction) that knowingly entail the inability of a legal entity or citizen, including an individual entrepreneur, to fully satisfy the claims of creditors for monetary obligations and (or) fulfill the obligation to make mandatory payments, if these actions (inaction) caused a major damage. Incidentally, the maximum sentence under this article is up to seven years in prison.
In the event that fair tariff decisions are not made and LOESK goes bankrupt, the provision of electricity to social facilities, including schools and hospitals, industrial and residential facilities throughout the Leningrad Region, is jeopardized, and half of the inhabitants of the region risk being without electricity by the New Year. Apparently, it's time for local residents and St. Petersburg residents who came for the New Year holidays to stock up on candles so as not to celebrate the New Year in the dark!
In addition, the company has obligations for technological connection to large industrial investors and residents of the Leningrad Region. Such illegal regulation leads to the impossibility of connecting new residential complexes, thus, the problem of deceived equity holders is coming in the Leningrad Region and, as a result, a social explosion.
Among other things, the bankruptcy of LOESK will lead to direct losses for the Leningrad region due to the depreciation of a 25% stake in JSC LOESK, owned by the regional authorities.
Why the regional government of the Leningrad region deliberately leads its company to bankruptcy with its own hands and deliberately inflicts billions of dollars in losses on the regional budget - one can only guess. But it can be assumed that the huge financial concessions of Lenenergo are not accidental, and the deliberate destruction of a competing grid company is done in favor of this future monopolist. Returning to the beginning of the article, it becomes obvious that it is precisely this kind of behavior of officials that is described in detail in Art. 196 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
To be continued
Timofey Zabiyakin
Source: www.rucriminal.info
