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The Ministry of Finance of the Khabarovsk Territory appealed to the Government of the Russian Federation for financial assistance to compensate for the costs of regional consumers incurred due to rising gas prices, the regional department told Kommersant. We are talking about the losses of power plants of the Far Eastern Generating Company (DGK, part of RusHydro), which buy gas from the Sakhalin-1 consortium. RusHydro reported that it was also asked to provide targeted subsidies in the state budget for 2020. The amount of the subsidy to cover losses in 2016–2020 should amount to about 3.3 billion rubles, according to the estimates of the tariff and price committee of the Khabarovsk Territory government. The Russian government did not comment.

Usually the problem was solved in manual mode. So, in 2015, the region was allocated a target subsidy for DGK in the amount of 2.07 billion rubles., According to the regional Ministry of Finance. In 2016–2017, DGK already suffered losses in the amount of 2.3 billion rubles, however, difficulties arose in returning the money. The Ministry of Finance on behalf of the president in 2019 provided the region with a subsidy.
But the government of the Khabarovsk Territory “used the subsidies received to cover the cash gap of the budget without providing DGK with funds,” the DGK claims. The Russian Finance Ministry told Kommersant that a subsidy of 6.4 billion rubles. was transferred to the region in full. When determining the estimated volume of the region’s expenses, the cost of DGK for the purchase of gas was taken into account, the ministry says, “however, subsidies are provided without specifying specific purposes for their use, the region itself determines where to send the money.” The Ministry of Finance insists that the subsidy was not allocated specifically for the purpose of covering the costs of DGK.

As a result, the loss case of Khabarovsk TPPs went to court: in August 2019, FGC demanded to recover 2.3 billion rubles. from the Ministry of Finance of the Khabarovsk Territory, but lost the argument. Now he is on appeal. There is no universal approach to such disputes, most likely, the Supreme Court will put an end to the case, says Vegas Lex partner Evgeny Rodin. However, he does not exclude a settlement as well, since, while the trial is in progress, difficulties may arise in using other methods of recovering financial losses, for example, by taking them into account in future periods. The regional Ministry of Finance says that a settlement agreement with the DGK was not discussed.