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Russian Finance Ministry plans to collect additional $2.6 bln from Gazprom in 2017

The ministry only plans to collect funds from Gazprom through mineral extraction tax on gas

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, September 28. /TASS/. Russia’s Finance Ministry is seeking to additionally collect 170 bln rubles ($2.6 bln) from Gazprom in 2017, Deputy Minister Ilya Trunin said Wednesday.

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"200 [billion rubles will be collected - TASS] from oil producers and 170 - from gas producers," he said, adding that the ministry only planned to collect funds from Gazprom through mineral extraction tax on gas.

The ministry plans to collect 200 bln rubles ($3.1 bln) from the oil sector without taking into account the hike of excise duty on gasoline and diesel fuel. According to Trunin, Russia’s 2017 budget already implies the increase of prices on gasoline and diesel fuel by 1 ruble and the ministry doubts the debt burden on fuel consumers should be further raised.

Earlier Kommersant business daily reported that the bite of taxes from the oil sector that the Finance Ministry is planning for replenishing 2017 budget, may be partially passed on to consumers through fuel excise duties. The newspaper wrote that representatives of relevant departments and oil companies discussed the options of collecting 200 bln rubles worth of additional taxes from the sector to fill 2017 budget ‘gaps’ at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.

Previously the Finance Ministry suggested that the base rate of the mineral extraction tax on oil should be raised by around $1 per barrel in 2017 (from 473 rubles per tonne to 1,392 rubles), which would add around 200 bln rubles ($3 bln) to taxes collected in the sector. However, oil producers advanced the move to replace a sharp hike of mineral extraction tax rate with an increase of fuel excise duties, or to simply collect the required sum of money via keeping excise duties at the level of 2016 and the export duty without raising the mineral extraction tax.

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