Latvia, Legislation, Railways, Transport

According to the State Railway Administration, Latvijas Dzelzcels has repeatedly ignored the administration's inquiries about details of the costs included in the calculations of the new railway infrastructure fees that are to take effect on January 1, 2018.

The State Railway Administration needs this information to check whether the planned increase of the railway infrastructure fees is substantiated.

Because Latvijas Dzelzcels is withholding information from the State Railway Administration, the latter cannot fulfill its statutory responsibilities.

"This is the first time in the history of the Latvian railway industry when a state-owned company has refused to supply information requested by a supervisory authority. Faced with such unprecedented incident, the State Railway Administration feels forced to take sanctions of which it had warned in its repeated requests for information," the head of the State Railway Administration, Juris Iesalnieks, said.

Under the Administrative Offenses Code, the fine for the offense may be as high as EUR 14,000.

As reported, LatRailNet, a subsidiary of Latvijas Dzelzcels, has decided to raise the fees for use of the public railway infrastructure fees as of 2018, including a 7% increase of the fee for railway freight.