After the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service boosted its activity, large businesses feared Igor Artemyev's employees more than the Taxation Service.
Thanks to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Anti-Monopoly Service has become a real power that only a few people dare to ignore. Gaining the service's attention is enough to make major oil companies toe the line and hurry to reduce fuel prices. Those who do not do it quickly enough face lawsuits. The service has been acting much more harshly than before. Since the beginning of 2008, it has filed over 150 lawsuits against oil companies, many of which were closed without issuing fines.
Since July 11, when Mr Putin instructed the service to work more effectively, 24 suits have been filed. The service has won eight of them, and the total sum of fines accounts for about a half a billion roubles.
The Prime Minister's words and Igor Artemyev's fear of losing his job were not the only reasons. The fact is that Vladimir Putin reminded the service's head that, after changing the anti-monopoly regulations, he had good leverage: turnover fees instead of small fixed fees.
Now, the service is working very carefully, at least with big cases. Apparently, it is demonstrating the rules of the game to those who are slow-witted; nonetheless, time continues to pass and the rates have been increasing. Rosneft and LUKoil were Igor Artemyev's next victims. On July 15, the service accused them of setting monopoly prices for petrol, aviation fuel, diesel fuel, and fuel oil. The state company earned $6.9 billion on the wholesale domestic market, with Vagit Alekperov holding $5.9 billion. A fee of 1% of these sums would be $69 and $59 million, respectively. A maximum fee of 15% will force Rosneft to pay $984 million and LUKoil, $879 million. Mr Artemyev promised them billion-rouble fees, so oil companies will not get away with warnings. The total sum will be defined by the middle of November.
Oil companies have one more problem: the implementation of measures on supporting the industry has been slowed down. The reasons are clear - oil taxes remain the only way to fill the exhausted currency reserves. World Urals prices have dropped and exports in September and October have stopped bringing profit, due to the so-called "Kudrin scissors". Now, sales on the domestic oil market have been decreasing as well. The service's activity was not the only reason for the fact that in November, the price of one metric ton of oil was between 2,000 and 2,100 roubles, or about $10 (!) for one barrel. Customers will benefit from this, because, together with decreasing demand for fuel in the winter season, this will lead to a steep decline in wholesale and retail prices of oil derivatives.