Putin allows govt to cut export duties for friendly states

MOSCOW, Dec 25 (PRIME) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law on Monday a bill that expands the powers of the government and allows it to reduce or zero the duties for exports to the friendly countries.

The bill allows the government to reduce the export duties for up to six months and to set the tariff export quotas for some amounts of goods effectively reducing or zeroing the customs duties for the friendly countries for up to one year. Also, the government will be able to define the rules for monitoring prices or other financial indicators used in calculations of the export duties, and the rules for distribution of the tariff quotas among the participants in foreign trade activities.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said earlier that the bill would allow Russia to use a flexible instrument of setting tariff preferences to stimulate exports of grain, fertilizers, and raw materials to the friendly countries and support the sanctioned Russian companies and the regions that suffered from changes in the logistics routes.

Liliya Shchur-Trukhanovich, director of the Economic Development Ministry’s department for development and regulation of external economic affairs, said that the bill would create rules for the government to use in unilateral introduction of non-tariff regulation measures like provision of export and import licenses to companies if they comply with certain conditions.

Moreover, the bill adjusts calculations of the average Urals oil price on which the export duty is based. The new calculation will take into account the cost of transportation to the Mediterranean and Rotterdam oil markets from the Russian seaports. The government will be allowed to raise the Urals price discount to the North Sea Dated price from November 15, 2023 through November 14, 2026, Shchur-Trukhanovich said.

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