Federal Antimonopoly Service Chief Igor Artemiev suggests introducing a uniform export duty on petrol, black oil fuel and diesel fuel in the rate of 80 percent of the oil duty.
Photo: Mikhail Solovyanov
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Federal Antimonopoly Service Revises Oil Schedule
Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service suggests revising the export duties on crude oil and petroleum each month instead of once in a couple of months. Finance Ministry doesn’t favor the proposal, reasoning that it will allow oil companies to save money by declaring oil exports in advance. But the Kremlin could be behind this initiative of the antimonopoly body.
Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) is elaborating proposals to change methods of calculating the export duties on crude oil and petroleum, FAS chief Igor Artemiev told Interfax Friday. The actual suggestion is to revise duties each month instead of every couple of months. Another proposal is to introduce a single duty on petrol, black oil fuel and diesel fuel in the rate of 80 percent of the duty on crude oil export.
“There should be no ratio like 50 percent for diesel fuel, 60 percent for petrol and 35 percent for black oil fuel. All our black oil fuel is being exported because of the low duty, and Russia feels its shortage. It’s a grand error of customs policy,” Artemiev specified.
The response of Finance Ministry was tough. “It’s sad that anyone feeling like it gets into the customs and tariff policy,” commented Alexander Sakovich, deputy chief of the customs payment department of Finance Ministry. By coming up with such statements, FAS attempts to distract attention from the lack of professionalism in accomplishing its direct duties – revealing the price collision.
According to Finance Ministry, implementation of FAS ideas will damage the budget. Nowadays, the companies save billions of rubles by declaring exported amount 15 days prior to the actual pumping. They can do it six times a year with today’s methods of calculation, but will be able to do it each month, if the proposals of FAS finally materialize.
The tricky point is that the Kremlin could be behind the ideas of the antimonopoly body. The initiative is probably a portion of informal support that the government renders to the oil industry.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 01, 2008
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