MINSK, October 3 (Itar-Tass) —— Belarus has raised its export duties for oil and petroleum products to the level of Russia’s export duties. The Council of Ministers have adopted a relevant document on Wednesday.
Under the document, the republic’s export duty for crude oil raised from 393.8 U.S. dollars per tonne to 418.9 U.S. dollars per tonne as of October 1, 2012.
Unified export duties for light and heavy petroleum products, exclusive gasoline, will make up 66 percent of the oil export duty, as of now, and will be established at 276.4 U.S. dollars per tonne from October 1, as compared to 259.9 U.S. dollars per tonne in September 2012, the document underlined.
The same level of the export duties for benzene, methylbenzene and xylene group. The export customs duty for commercial gasoline and straight-run gasoline is calculated proceeding from the 0.9 coefficient and was raised to 377 U.S. dollars per tonne for October from 354.4 U.S. dollars per tonne in September.
Besides, the republic’s export duties for propane, butane, ethylene, propylene, butylenes and other liquefied natural gases increased from 76.2 U.S. dollars to 172.5 U.S. dollars per tonne, the document stated.
As of 2011, Belarus imports Russia’s oil free-of-duty, but transfers to the Russian budget customs duties for petroleum products, which are produced of these hydrocarbons for their further supplies to third countries. Belarus disburses in its own budget those export duties from the sale of oil, which was produced inside the republic.
In January-August 2012, Belarus transferred to the Russian federal budget 2.7 billion U.S. dollars of customs duties for petroleum products, manufactured from Russia’s oil.
According to earlier reports, In October 1, 2011, in compliance with the prime minister’s decree, Russia had imposed the new “60-66” taxation regime for the petroleum industry, which envisages a decline of oil export duties by about seven percent with simultaneous change of its calculation formula. Therefore, it will take into account 60 percent, instead of the previous level of 65 percent, of the margin between the monitoring price and the oil price of 182.5 U.S. dollars per tonne.
Under the document, export duties for light and heavy petroleum products will be unified at the level of 66 percent of the country’s oil export duty. However, the decree maintains higher duties for the export of gasoline – at 90 percent of the oil export duty.
The document envisages that export duties for heavy petroleum products will be increased to the level of crude export duty starting from 2015. It is expected that 0.9 coefficient of the export customs duty for crude oil will be effective for straight-run gasoline and commercial gasoline after January 1, 2015 too.