Elena Korzun: Tax manoeuvre doesn’t save budget of the country

Problems, which have arisen in connection with the fall in world oil prices, tax reforms, sanctions and the lack of "long cheap" money, are not just in the "big oil industry". Independent oil companies are in the same conditions as the well-known Russian mining companies. General director of the Association of Independent oil and gas companies Assoneft Elena Korzun gives her assessment of the financial component in the current oil and gas industry.

- At the December 18th Annual General Meeting of authorized representatives of the companies - participants of our association, we have reported to our colleagues that, according to the Ministry of Finance’s report on the budget performance in the first six months of 2015, the Government missed 727 billion rubles of oil and gas revenues - they decreased for the first time since 2010. Thus, we can already state that the so-called "big tax maneuver", implemented in the sector since January 1 of this year, didn’t save the state budget.

As for the sector of the independent oil companies, according to our assessment, prepared for the participants of the mentioned18th Annual General Meeting, the tax burden on the, grew from 44% to 50% of their gross income, which seriously reduced their ability to invest in their businesses.