The state customer can collect a penalty for violation of the contract stage term, if there is a work schedule.
The parties signed a contract for construction work. In it they provided a production schedule: specify the types of work by month, their volume and cost.
The customer informed the contractor that he had violated the interim deadlines for certain periods of the schedule. The claim required payment of a penalty. The contractor did not do this: the interim terms are not agreed in the contract.
Later, the customer notified the contractor of the penalty for violation of the production schedule. He again did not agree: the contract does not provide for a penalty for violation of interim terms.
The courts supported the customer:
the contractor has assumed the obligation to perform the work according to the production schedule;
the schedule sets deadlines for the completion of certain types of work by months, by which the contractor must complete the amount of work for a certain amount;
the fact of performing certain works from the schedule, as well as their acceptance by the customer, is confirmed by the relevant acts.
This means that the stages of the contract are set. The customer can collect a penalty for their delay.
Note that in practice, there is an example when, under similar circumstances, the courts refused to collect a penalty: the schedule agreed by the parties for performing work under the contract does not mean that the stages are set.
Document: Resolution of the AC of the Volga-Vyatka district of 17.11.2020 in the case N A28-2251/2020