Armed Forces of the Russian Federation: underfunding does not exempt from the penalty for late payment under the state contract
The parties signed a contract for the supply of electricity. The customer paid it late, so the supplier accrued penalties under the Law on Electric Power Industry.
The customer has not paid the penalty:
- the contract was registered in the EIS only on February 28, 2020, so the obligation to pay arose after that date;
- the bill for December 2020 could not be paid until they signed a contract for next year. In addition, the limits for 2021 were brought only on January 20;
- the penalty was incorrectly accrued in a larger amount than the Law N 44-FZ allows.
Three instances did not support the customer:
- the contract was extended to the relationship from January 1, 2020. The customer was obliged to pay for energy from this date;
- underfunding and organizational arrangements of the customer in connection with the conclusion of the contract or payment do not exempt from the penalty. These are not force majeure circumstances;
- The Law on the Electric power industry is of a special nature in relation to Law No. 44-FZ, since the latter does not take into account the specifics of relations in the field of energy supply. The supplier correctly calculated the penalty based on its norms.
The RF Armed Forces did not review the case.
Recall that recently the Supreme Court supported a similar position.
Document: Definition of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from 01.07.2022 N 307-ES22-12560