Finance Ministry mulls no replacement of export duty on fertilizers

ST. PETERSBURG, Jun 14 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Finance Ministry is not discussing a new mechanism that could replace the export duty on mineral fertilizers, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Sazanov told reporters on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Vedomosti business daily said that the government was considering canceling the duty and introducing a new mechanism.

“So far, we have been discussing only one thing that was noted in the story – the current revenue amounts to 5–6 billion rubles. This is for almost half a year, while we expected 120 billion rubles for the year meaning that we are collecting significantly less from the duty than expected. We brought this forward to the government … and we suggest getting this money through other channels because it was already included into the budget,” Sazanov said.

“So far there is no decision on whether we could abolish the duty and collect the necessary sum through another instrument. Discussion of this concept is going on. We are not discussing a mechanism as long as the concept is under discussion, and no final decision was made.”

(83.6405 rubles – U.S. $1)

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