The representatives of large and medium-sized businesses from various sectors of the Ukrainian economy have appealed to the country's leadership asking it to accelerate the implementation of the coalition agreement on the establishment of the National Commission on Transport as an independent regulator of railway tariffs, which would eliminate the practice of cross-subsidization.

The Federation of Ukrainian Metallurgists posted corresponding letters to the President, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Economic Development and Trade, the Finance Minister and profile parliamentary committees, which were signed by large industrial enterprises, associations and unions from various sectors, and are available on the federation's website.

In the letters, the Infrastructure Ministry's initiative to increase cargo rail tariffs by 25% and the use of wagons is heavily criticized. It is noted that freight rail tariffs were raised by 12.5% in July 2014 and by 30% in January this year. If another decision on increasing railway rates is made, the overall rise in the cost of rail transportation will be 82.9%, which is higher than the pessimistic forecasts of the government on industrial producers' prices as of the end of 2015. At the same time, under the latest initiative of the ministry shippers', additional costs in the current year will amount to about UAH 8.5 billion.

According to the authors of the letters, the profitability of transporting empty cargo wagons is currently 33%, but due to a multiplying coefficient to the introduced it will reach more than 100%.