OREANDA-NEWS.  July 20, 2012. The Commission of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) found that the Committee of the Bryansk Region on Agriculture and Food Products violated Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” (competition-restricting actions), reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.    

The Committee changed the procedures for granting subsidies in 2011 to agricultural producers, peasant holdings (farms) in the Bryansk region to support economically important programmes under a long-term target Program for “Developing Beef Cattle Breeding in the Bryansk region” (2009-2012). It changed the criteria for selecting Programme participants and decreased the number of such participants. The actions of the Committee restricted competition on the market of beef cattle breeding in the Bryansk region.

The antimonopoly case was initiated upon a petition of a physical person. Investigating the case, the FAS Commission established that making changes to the procedures of subsidies allocating resulted in considerable reduction (from 60 to 13) of enterprises that can take part in the Program for “Developing Beef Cattle Breeding in the Bryansk region” (2009-2012). Preferential conditions were created for “Bryansk Meet Company” Ltd. to receive subsidies from the federal budget under the Programme. The changes in subsidies allocation procedures also could have imposed restrictions upon members of the general public who could qualify for receiving subsidies in 2011.

“State support of agricultural producers under industry-specific target programmes is of considerable social importance and is aimed at developing agricultural enterprises of all types, including small peasant holdings (farms)”, pointed out Acting Head of FAS Department for Control over Chemical Industry and Agro-Industrial Complex, Irina Epifanova. “Therefore, it is absolutely essential to form such conditions so agricultural enterprises can know in advance the selection criteria for taking part in industry-specific programmes. Changing the rules of the game is unacceptable”.