Reduction of duties on oil can cause conflict with Belarus.

Deepening the tax maneuver to reduce the duties down to zero and increasing severance tax, which is discussed in the RF Ministry of Finance, may cause a conflict with Belarus, "the Vedomosti" writes on Thursday.

The publication reports that the zero duty will automatically lead to an increase in domestic oil prices, which in turn - to the drastic decrease in refinery margins. But Russian refinery margin decrease can be compensated, for example, through the mechanism of excise duties on crude oil. However, in addition to Russian Belarusian oil refineries will suffer - and the Belarusian budget will have to support them already on its own.