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"Certain consensus" reached on new taxes for Russian oil sector — energy ministry official

Russian Ministries of Energy and Finance agreed that new taxation conditions should apply not merely to greenfields but to brownfields as well, primarily fields situated in Western Siberia

MOSCOW, December 10. /TASS/. Russian Ministries of Energy and Finance made a joint decision on new taxes for the oil industry, representative of the Energy Ministry Andrey Tereshok said on Thursday.

"We managed to reach certain consensus that the new taxation conditions should apply not merely to greenfields as the Finance Ministry suggested but to brownfields as well, primarily fields situated in Western Siberia," the official said.

Quotas for fields will be discussed, the official said. The new taxation scheme will appear in 2017 only, he added.

The tax on financial results anticipating taxation of oil sales revenues less lifting costs and costs of transportation to users will be introduced in pilot conditions.

The excess profits tax is planned at a fixed level of 70%, with the tax base being estimated feedstock production earnings less estimated transportation costs, export duty, mineral extraction tax, actual operating expenses (other than transport) and capital investments. Excess profits tax will be charged only when all the company’s expenses are paid off and it receives fixed return rate on the cash flow of 6%. According to the draft law, excess profits tax would be used for brownfields and greenfields, but historical costs are taken into account only for the greenfields - before the year the tax is introduced.