Russian Finance Ministry prepares draft on deferring steel excise tax, MET on iron ore for metal companies until Dec - ministry

MOSCOW. Oct 13 (Interfax) - The Russian Finance Ministry has developed a draft resolution on providing support to the ferrous metallurgy industry, and it proposes postponing the payment deadlines for the excise tax on liquid steel and the mineral extraction tax (MET) on iron ore to December 1, 2025, the ministry said on its website.

"The need for such support was identified during an analysis of enterprises' financial condition and the established law enforcement practice. The implementation of the decision will allow metallurgical enterprises to free up working capital to overcome the consequences of the situation that has developed in their economic activities and stabilize financial indicators," the ministry said.

The resolution will enter into force on the day of its official publication.

Kommersant previously reported on the government's preparation of the corresponding draft resolution, citing a copy of the document. Last week, Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov called the deferral of payment of the steel excise tax until December 1 an insufficient measure to support the industry.

The excise tax on steel, which was initially considered a temporary measure, was introduced on January 1, 2022. According to the excise tax calculation formula for vertically integrated steel producers, it is zeroed out provided that the value of the Tsslyab indicator (the export price for slabs for a calendar month) multiplied by the average value of the U.S. dollar to ruble exchange rate for the calendar month is below 30,000 rubles. In 2024, according to the Russian Steel Association, the cost of a slab even for the most efficient Russian metallurgical plants exceeded 40,000 rubles per tonne.