Workers prepare a Volgotanker freighter for winter navigation.
Photo: Valery Melnikov
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Volgotanker Steamship Loaded with Taxes
Samara Region’s Department of the Federal Tax Service completed inspection of Volgotanker reports for years 2002, 2003. The amount claimed in back taxes for those two years stands at 1.4 billon rubes. Therefore, with taxes additionally charged for 2001 taken into account, overall arrears of Volgotanker exceed 2 billion rubles.
Volgotanker steamship is one of the biggest in Russia river freight carriers of petroleum with the 6.8-million ton turnover posted in the nine months of the past year. Net profit reached 309.3 million rubles over the period. The core holders are Blue Range Investment Inc. (15.39 percent), Copeland Investment Ventures L (14.41 percent), Inversiones Kayzen Ltd (10.47 percent), Paramount Holding Venture Inc. (19.07 percent), Bolina Ventures Ltd (14.46 percent). State-run stake stands at 20 percent. Volgotanker had been managed by YUKOS up to 2000.
Now the case to collect 630-million rubles in 2001 back taxes from the steamship is tried by Samara Arbitration. The first hearing is slated for the next week.
A source with the tax inspection told Kommersant the amount of 1.4 billion rubles claimed for 2002 and 2003 is preliminary. It may go up or down in future, the source specified. According to data available to Kommersant, the essence of the new claims raised to Volgotanker is similar to the 2001 claims. Tax bodies again suspect the steamship in having applied illegal procedures for VAT compensation. Under the documents submitted by Volgotanker, it is entitled for VAT indemnity as a shipper of the export cargo. But the tax authorities and prosecutors say it was Volgotanker’s subsidiary – Volgotanker Marine Services A/S (Denmark), which actually shipped the cargo abroad. If the tax bodies succeed in justifying the claims to Volgotanker, back arrears of the company will surpass 2 billion rubles, evidently too much for the steamship to survive, sources with Samara Region’s government noted to Kommersant.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 15, 2005
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