Source: New Belarusian ecology tax on oil not for Russia to pay

MINSK, Jan 13 (PRIME) -- The new environmental tax for the transit of oil through Belarus only applies to Belarusian oil pipeline operator Gomeltransneft Druzhba, an oil industry source familiar with the draft decree told PRIME on Monday.

“The draft tax decree has been in development for the past year, there were several editions of the document. As far as I am aware, they wanted to introduce a fixed tax amounting to 35 (Belarusian) kopecks per 100 tonne-kilometers…They are yet to publish the latest edition of the decree, we only know that it was signed,” the source said.

“But it is supposed that Gomeltransneft Druzhba will pay the environmental tax because it is the operator of the Belarusian part of the Druzhba pipeline, Transneft will pay nothing. It has nothing to do with the Russian side whatsoever.”

On January 10, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a decree introducing an environmental tax on oil transit in the amount of 50% of profit.

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