Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Energy agree new parameters of tax manoeuvre in oil industry

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Energy have come to agreement on new parameters of the tax manoeuvre in the oil industry, three federal officials, who participated in the discussions, told the Vedomosti. The Ministries didn’t respond to a request of the Vedomosti.

The Government has prepared the tax reform from spring: a sharp decline in oil export duties (approximately to the level of Kazakhstan - $80 per ton, now it is $385 per ton in Russia) and a compensatory sharp increase in the mineral extraction tax (MET). At the beginning of June, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Energy agreed parameters of the manoeuvre, but Rosneft’s president Igor Sechin didn’t like them- he complained to the President that new projects would suffer from this manoeuvre, primarily the project of Eastern Petrochemical Company (VNHK).

Government heard the businessman: during the next meeting the First Deputy Prime Minister, Arkady Dvorkovich instructed the Ministries to adjust parameters of the manoeuvre not to bring down margins in oil refining.