In accordance with the approved Work Plan of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic for 2023, from 10 till 11 May 2023, a meeting of the Working Group of the Parties to the PGW Agreement on tariff rate calculation was held in the OSJD Committee (Warsaw) which was attended by the representatives of the Parties to the PGW Agreement, members of the Working Group from: Byelorussian Railway (BC), “Kazakhstan Temir Zholy National Company” JSC (KZH), LDZ Cargo LLC (LDZ Cargo), Russian Railways OJSC (RZD OJSC), “Railway Company Cargo Slovakia JSC” (ZSSK Cargo), “O’zbekiston temir yo’llari” JSC (UTI), “Ukrainian Railways” JSC (UZ), Estonian Railway JSC (EVR), as well as representatives of the Parties to the PGW Agreement from: Hungarian State Railways Co. (MAV Co.), Rail Cargo Hungaria Co. (RCH Co.), Ulan-Bator Railway JSC (UBZD JSC) and the OSJD Committee.

The leading duty holder has performed a preliminary analysis of the data for 2022 received from the Parties to the PGW Agreement to calculate the draft rates for the use of freight wagons in international traffic, and presented the results of the preliminary calculation of the draft rates for the use of freight wagons, bogies and wagons without bogies in international traffic made on the basis of the data received by the Parties to the PGW Agreement for 2022. The meeting participants stated that the calculations were made in accordance with Annex 17 “Methodology for calculating the tariff rates to be paid for the use of wagons, bogies and wagons without bogies” to the PGW. After the individual Parties to the PGW Agreement provide initial and updated data, the leading duty holder will recalculate the draft tariff rates for the use of freight wagons, bogies and wagons without bogies in international traffic for the purpose of further consideration and adoption of appropriate decisions at a meeting of Authorised representatives of the Parties to the PGW Agreement (19-22 June 2023). In addition, according to the data of the Swiss National Bank (www.snb.ch), the inflation rate (change in consumer prices) for 2022 amounted to 2.8 %, and therefore, in accordance with paragraph 1.3.6 of the Methodology, it was noted that the rates of payment for the use of wagons are not subject to indexation. At the same time, the meeting participants recommended that the current rates listed in Annex 12 “List of tariff rates” to the PGW Rules be left unchanged until the meeting of authorised representatives considers the recalculation of the draft rates based on the updated initial data.

When considering the proposal of the Party to the PGW Agreement from the EVR to amend subparagraph 1.2.3 of the Methodology, which provides for a separate rule for the actions of the railway company in the absence of shared wagons, the meeting participants did not agree on the advisability of introducing this amendment into the Methodology. It was decided that additional discussion on this issue was necessary at the meeting of Authorised representatives of the Parties to the PGW Agreement which was scheduled to be held at the OSJD Committee in June this year