The annual meeting of the Finance Committee took place on 20 May 2014. The meeting brought together 20 members representing UIC European members to address cross-sector and financial matters under the presidency of David Sitruk, SNCF, and UIC Finance Director, Thierry Bera. The committee works with seven regular working groups – RCF (Réglementation Comptable et Financière/Accounting and Financial Regulation) 1, RCF 2, RCF 3, IPAAB (International Passenger and Baggage Accounts Auditing Body), Debts, Statistics and Taxation – which report annually on the work of 2013 and present work-in-progress for 2014.

RCF 1 – establishes common Accounting and Financial Regulations of Passenger Traffic; RFC 2 – for Freight Traffic; and RCF 3 – follows leaflets related to interest rate calculation and debts. The mission of IPAAB Audit Team is to correct the application of international tariffs; UIC leaflets and CIT regulations for international passenger transport, secure the revenues; improve the accounting process and quality of distribution and accounting systems, and knowledge transfer concerning UIC standards and CIT rules. The Debt group follows the situation and the results of Office for Debt Compensations; the Statistics group provides a high-quality statistical information service to UIC members, to sectors in the community and to other users of statistics; the Taxation group addresses Taxation of energy in the railway sector; the weight of tax in the railway sector and VAT in international passenger transport.
The work of the above groups will be presented in the upcoming articles devoted to the work of the Finance Committee.

Besides regular group presentations every year the Finance Committee invites guest speakers. This year they included Simon Fletcher, UIC, who presented the Future European Rail System – Challenge 2050, Marc Guigon, UIC, presented TAP TSI Phase II, Start up of the Telematics Application for passengers Regulation, and François Maugère, UIC, explained Horizon 2020 Opportunities and Risks of the new Framework Programme on Research & Innovation (2014 – 2020). The meeting was concluded by Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC General Director, who encouraged all UIC members to attend the GA in Portoroz, Slovenia, on 27 June, which will bring together more than 240 members of UIC from 5 continents.

The next meeting of the Finance Committee is scheduled for June 2015.