ŽICG in the red by 3,1 million, demanding higher prices for the "railway"

Railway Infrastructure incurred a business loss of 3,12 million euros in six months, according to the state-owned company's business report published on the Montenegro Stock Exchange.

The explanation states that the main reason for the poor performance is that they did not receive the full amount of state subsidies during this period. They state that for these six months, according to the contract, they were supposed to receive 7,5 million euros from the state for regular maintenance and care of the railway infrastructure, but that they only received five million.

This resulted in a higher loss of two and a half million euros, while the remaining loss of around 630 thousand euros is due to low prices for using railway infrastructure (fees for train passage to railway companies), which are said to be many times lower than market prices.

From this core activity, charging fees for the passage of trains through their infrastructure, they generated only 448 thousand euros in revenue in these six months. The company's total revenue, including state subsidies, for the first half of the year amounted to 8,44 million euros, while expenses were 11,6 million euros.

This means that the core activity of charging transporters (operators) for the use of the railway route only accounts for about five percent of their revenue. This majority state-owned joint-stock company has been asking the state for years to allow them to increase this fee, but the government has refused because the railway operators would pass on the increase in this cost to increase ticket prices for passengers and to the economy for increasing the price of freight transport.

"The inability to establish market prices for all services it provides has a major impact on the company's operations and the negative result achieved, the most drastic of which is the price level of the basic service - the route. Namely, the income from the route for the first half of 2026 is very small and amounts to 448 thousand euros, thanks to the fact that certain operators pay symbolic amounts, not real prices, which gives them privileges and the burden of all costs of regular traffic unfairly, uneconomically and unrealistically falls on this company. As of the date of preparation of this report, ŽICG has not been sent a new methodology, as required by law," the report states in its explanation.

The company's management also states that they have asked the state, as the majority owner, as well as minority shareholders, to approve an increase in prices and other services provided by this company, stating that they are many times higher on the market.

This refers to the increase in the rental prices of land and business premises owned by the company (from which they earned 90 thousand euros in half a year), to the increase in the rental prices of electrical and telecommunications installations (electrical and optical cables placed along the railway that they rent mostly to mobile phone operators), from which they earned 277 thousand euros in six months.

They state that they have sent a proposal for a new price list for these services to the relevant Ministry of Transport before, but that they have not received approval for its implementation.

In addition to subsidies for railway maintenance of five million euros, the state paid this company another half a million euros to repay the loan for infrastructure construction for which the government was the guarantor.

The largest debtors of state-owned companies are demanding 5,4 million from their partners.

At the end of June, Railway Infrastructure claims 5,4 million euros from business partners.

The largest amount of claims relates to another majority state-owned company for freight transport by rail - Montekargo, which owes ŽICG 4,46 million euros.

The next largest debtors are also state-owned railway companies - Railway Transport with 580 thousand euros and Railway Rolling Stock Maintenance with a debt of 140 thousand euros.

They also have receivables from M:tel of 107 thousand, Fidija of 26 thousand, CEDIS of 37 thousand,...

At the same time, the company has debts to business partners of 2,6 million euros, of which the largest amount is to Elektroprivreda of 1,37 million euros.

At the end of June, the company had a debt of 7,5 million euros for taxes and contributions to the Tax Administration, as well as a debt of 1,7 million euros towards the housing fund for its employees, an obligation under the collective agreement.