According to Federal Customs Service chief Andrei Belyaninov, the oil duties discount may back up not only the oil production but also the execution of department’s targets.
Photo: Vasily Shaposhnikov/Kommersant
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Oilmen to Surrender 40% Discount to Customs Service
Despite the government’s decision to lower the oil export duty from $372.2 per a ton to $287.3 per a ton starting from November 1, 2008, the customs authorities will transfer to the new rate only after November 15, i.e. the oilmen will pay previous duties over the first two weeks of this month.
Representatives of Federal Customs Service clarified yesterday the procedures of unprecedented transfer to the lowered duty on oil export that the government executed post factum, from November 1.
“Despite that the government’s ruling No. 802 of November 1, 2008 reduced the oil export duty to $287.3 per a ton, the customs bodies may collect it only when the ruling takes effect, i.e. in ten days after its promulgation. It was promulgated in Rossiyskaya Gazeta November 5, so the new duty will take effect only November 15,” said a spokesman of Central Energy Customs of the Federal Customs Service.
“The amount of customs duties paid in excess will be taken into account for the oil companies when they pay for oil and petroleum of following supplies,” the official explained.
Under the Customs Tariff Act, the export duty is calculated based on the two-month monitoring of world prices for crude oil. It is introduced for two months by the government’s ruling no later than on the 20th day of each preceding month. The duty was set at $372.2 per a ton from October 1 and the rate was to survive till December 1.
But the decline in oil prices to $60 per a barrel of Urals turned the oil export into a loss-making business. The government stepped in to rescue the exporters and, on October 31, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ruled to curtail duties on oil and petroleum export from November 1, 2008.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 07, 2008
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