PRESS: Fuel compensation to oil cos to cost Russia 25–30 bln rbl

MOSCOW, Jun 10 (PRIME) -- Compensation to oil companies for domestic supplies of fuel will grow starting from July 1, and it would cost the Russian budget 25–30 billion rubles, Alexei Sazanov, director of the Finance Ministry’s department for tax and customs policy, said in an interview with Vedomosti business daily published on Monday.

Currently, the government compensates for 60% of the difference between the actual export price of fuel and the price of 56,000 rubles per tonne of gasoline and 50,000 rubles per tonne of diesel fuel. From July 1, the threshold price will be reduced to 51,000 rubles and 46,000 rubles, respectively, but correction factors will also be changed and will amount to 0.75 for gasoline and to 0.7 for diesel fuel, Sazanov told the daily.

It will cost the budget 25–20 billion rubles in the second half of the year, but authorities agreed to raise the mineral extraction tax by 75 rubles from September 1 in order to compensate for that, he said.

The compensation formula will also change in 2020, and the government will reimburse 68% and 65% of the difference between the export and the threshold price of gasoline and diesel fuel, respectively, which will also be adjusted for inflation. This will compensate oil companies for losses and hold domestic fuel prices, but the budget loss will grow to 84 billion rubles under the oil price of U.S. $65 per barrel, he said.

The Finance Ministry and the Energy Ministry are still to agree on the long-term mechanism of compensation of these budget losses, he said.

(65.0395 rubles – U.S. $1)

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