The Russian budget will receive an additional 353 billion roubles within three years from a new taxation system for East Siberian oil fields, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at yesterday's Government Presidium meeting. The ministers did not take a final decision on the new tax schedule, but they decided how to proceed with natural resources' restoration. The state will finance the early stages of exploration.
Vladimir Putin began his speech with the ministers by discussing environmental issues.
"I asked you to make proposals on how to clean Russia's northern areas, Franz Joseph Land and the Northern Sea Route," the prime minister told the Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Yury Trutnev. "I mean the harmful residue, mostly oil products, left after the withdrawal of the Armed Forces and other special services [from the area]."
As it turns out, if the government wants to start cleaning areas beyond the polar circle from the start of next year, it should first amend the relevant legal documents.
Putin told the ministers about the proposals made by a young environmentalist to increase the penalties for environmental violations. As you know, a week ago the prime minister visited the Losiny Ostrov (Elk Island) national park, and a pupil from Moscow school No.1409 asked him to respond to environmental violations "more strictly."
As for the agenda - the development of exploration - the prime minister asked to work for the future.
"In recent years, the known deposits of oil, gas, gold and copper are larger than their annual production, meaning that production is adequate and that exploration must continue," the prime minister noted with satisfaction. "Still, we have to create conditions for Russian industry to have access to mineral resources for years to come."
"The state must finance the early stages of exploration, and then step back and give business the opportunity to make the in-depth research necessary for exploring these fields," Putin said.
With this in mind, we should facilitate access to state information resources, in particular to convert geological archives to an electronic format. (By the way, the law abolishing remuneration for geological data on mineral resources has already been adopted). And finally, it is necessary to abolish excessive administrative barriers that prevent small and medium businesses from investing in exploration.
However, yesterday's meeting was devoted not only to mineral resources to be explored and produced but also about the mineral resources that provide revenue for the federal budget now. This primarily concerns East Siberian gas deposits.
Last year global oil prices declined forcing the authorities to drop export tariffs to zero for the oil from these fields as an anti-crisis measure. Now several oil fields in this region have become profitable. So it is time to consider a balanced budget measure to update the tax schedule for this "black gold."
"According to the amended tax code, export tariffs will be based on 45% of the positive difference between $50 per barrel and the actual price per barrel," Sechin told the prime minister yesterday.
According to Sechin, this change will result in over 350 billion additional roubles in budget revenue within three years, but it should be implemented by July 1 so the revenue increase will total about 11.9 billion roubles this year.
Still, despite the fact that the new system has already been coordinated with the Ministry of Energy, the oil companies and the Federal Tariff Service, the ministers did not make a final decision yesterday. According to the Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Yury Trutnev, the issue regarding the updated tax code for East Siberian oil "will be discussed on higher levels."
Anastasia Savinykh
