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REUTERS
Moscow: Russia will raise taxes on gas and continue to grant access to oil export pipelines only to companies which pay their taxes, among a range of measures to boost revenues, a government memorandum published last week said.The Kommersant business daily published a 54-point "Memorandum of the government of the Russian Federation and the central bank of the Russian Federation on economic policy," a document which the International Monetary Fund has been pressing for before releasing further loans. The document also says Russia will abolish the system of imposing export tariffs, now applied on oil, gas and a range of metals and other commodities, as soon as possible."The government will resume the collection of Value Added Tax and excise duties on gas by means of an extra charge," one of the paragraphs states."The government will allow access to the system of export oil pipelines only to those oil companies which themselves, or whose holding companies and all subsidiaries...do not have overdue debts on theirtax obligations...including in those cases when the oil is used as collateral in agreements on credits with foreign partners," another item states.
The document later says that Russia is committed to adhering to a liberal trade regime. "However, after the August crisis (when the currency, the rouble, was devalued), the government was forced to take a range of measures to resolve the problems of the tax and budgetary position, including introducing a range of export tariffs."
But the document then states that both the government and the central bank will analyse these tariffs and abolish them as soon as the financial position allows it. It adds that the government has taken on itself an obligation "not to introduce any new quantitative limitations in the field of international trade," and will continue talks with a view to joining the World Trade Organisation.
Exports of energy and commodities, especially metals, are Russia's largest hard currency earners. The country is the world's biggest gas producer,third largest oil producer, and a key supplier of several precious and base metals.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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