Russian Ministry of Finance discusses acceleration of tax manoeuvre

The Russian Ministry continues to discuss the deepening of the tax maneuver - reducing duties down to zero and increasing severance tax. The problem is that such a maneuver may cause a conflict with Belarus. A senior official, an official of the financial block and two oilmen involved in the discussion know about it. "This will increase the budget revenues (the tax base of MET is greater than of the export duty), but the issue is very difficult," - says the senior official.

Zeroing the duty will automatically lead to the increase in the domestic oil prices, and this in turn - to the drastic decrease in the refineries’ margins. But the Russian refineries’ margin decline can be compensated, for example, through the mechanism of the excise duties on crude oil. However, in addition to Russian, the Belarusian oil refineries will suffer - and they will have to be supported by the Belarusian budget on its own.