20 April. FINMARKET.RU – The State Duma adopted in the second reading amendments to the law on subsoil, which leave the only option for bidding for subsoil plots – an electronic auction, such a form of bidding as a tender is excluded from the law. The winner will be the applicant with the highest single payment. The amendments were introduced by the government for the second reading of the bill (N288750-7).
In the current legislation, there are two forms of bidding for subsoil plots: auctions and competition. In the event of a competition, the winner will be determined based on a number of criteria, including the scientific and technical level of programs for geological study and use of subsoil plots, completeness of extraction of minerals, contribution to the socio-economic development of the territory. In the case of an auction, the criterion for identifying a winner is only the size of a one-time payment for the right to use a subsoil plot.
The same criterion in terms of identifying the winner of the auction is retained in the draft law adopted in the second reading. If the auction is declared invalid due to the presence of only one bidder, then he is granted the right to use the subsoil plot, but with the establishment of the size of a one-time payment not lower than the one set by the terms of the auction, increased by the “auction step”.
If the winner of the auction fails to pay a one-time payment, the winner is the participant in the auction whose proposal preceded the proposal of the original winner.
According to the text of the law on subsoil, in connection with the introduction of the auction form, a number of amendments were made that relate to the development of hard-to-recover oil and gas reserves (TrIZs). Now the companies developing TRIZ are exempted from paying one-time and regular payments for the use of subsoil. The version prepared for the second reading states: the starting size of a one-time payment for the use of subsoil in relation to hard-to-recover minerals is set in the amount determined by Rosnedra.
The bill also expands the information on the subsoil user that must be submitted when applying for a license. Also in the license it will be necessary to indicate the date of putting the mineral deposit into development.
A separate article describes in detail the grounds on which changes may be made to the license for the use of subsoil. Previously, these grounds were scattered across several articles of the subsoil law, and the information was not accumulated.
The bill also introduces a register of unscrupulous auction participants who are recognized as winners and who have not paid one-time payments in due time.
