Putin, Lukashenko to meet Sat to mull oil taxation change redress

MOSCOW, Dec 28 (PRIME) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin will negotiate compensation for oil taxation changes with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko further on Saturday, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

On Wednesday, Putin and Lukashenko failed to align their positions on the Russian tax maneuver. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that Moscow is ready to compensate Minsk for the changes by providing subsidies to Belarusian refineries only if the Russia–Belarus Union State continues to integrate on the initiative by Belarus.

Peskov said, “President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko will arrive to Moscow on a working visit under an agreement between the two presidents tomorrow. And tomorrow as well, the negotiations between Putin and Lukashenko will be held, discussion of the topics which were on the agenda of the meeting held several days ago in Moscow will continue.”

In August, Putin signed into law a bill on the final stage of a tax reform, which implies reduction of the oil export duty by 5 percentage points annually from the current 30% within six years starting from 2019.

For Belarus, the reform will mean a higher price of oil imported from Russia and a lower income from export duties, as Russia delivers 18 million tonnes of oil to the Belarusian refineries every year and additional 6 million tonnes participate in a re-export mechanism sending the export duties to Belarus’s budget.

Belarus estimates its losses from the Russian oil tax maneuver at up to U.S. $11 billion over six years and the 2019 budget’s losses at around $300 million.

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