PRESS: Energy Ministry wants to keep tax burden on oil firms flat

MOSCOW, Jun 9 (PRIME) – The Russian government should maintain the current tax burden on oil companies for four or five years, Vedomosti business daily reported on Friday citing Deputy Energy Minister Kirill Molodtsov as saying.

In its main directions of the taxation policy for 2017–2019, the Finance Ministry suggested adding 306 rubles per tonne of oil in 2017, 357 rubles in 2018 and 428 rubles in 2019 to the mineral extraction tax.

But Molodtsov told the business daily that the 2017–2019 conditions are better than those envisaged by the budget, which means that budget revenue will be higher even without the higher tax burden.

Two government officials told Vedomosti that the Energy Ministry suggested the government keep the burden flat in 2018 in early 2017, when oil producing countries agreed to cap output and prices grew. The idea was not considered seriously, but the government paid more attention to it after the OPEC+ deal was prolonged for nine months on May 25, Vedomosti reported.

“Scenario conditions are actually better than expected, but budget deficit still amounts to a 13-digit figure and lower energy revenues of the budget is significant compared with 2014,” Alexei Sazanov, head of the Finance Ministry’s tax department, said as cited by the business daily.

A representative of oil major Rosneft told Vedomosti that the company is interested in keeping a consistent tax regime that support development of investment projects. Other oil companies declined to comment.

(56.9857 rubles – U.S. $1)

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