Diesel deal will support Russia's balance of payments, budget will benefit through taxes from exporters - finance minister

MOSCOW. Oct 13 (Interfax) - The agreements with the U.S. that opened up the possibility of exporting Russian diesel fuel to world markets will support Russia's balance of payments and bring indirect benefit to the country's budget through tax revenues from oil companies, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

"Our companies will get the opportunity to export diesel and receive revenue and currency for it; this is important for our balance of payments, and above all, of course, for the companies," Siluanov told journalists in the State Duma in response to a request for comment on the benefits of the diesel deal.

Answering a question about whether the budget will receive additional revenues, Siluanov said: "No, we do not have export duties on diesel. But this will be taken into account in companies' financial results, and they will accordingly pay taxes into the budget system," he said.

As reported, following a telephone conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a temporary general license until April next year permitting supplies of Russian diesel fuel to the world market. Russia is ready to supply 300,000 tonnes of diesel fuel to the U.S. market as well as to other partners in October, and by the end of the year it will be ready to bring this up to 3-3.5 million tonnes per month, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said.