Agencies, companies except Gazprom support ministry's proposals on shelf access - minister
NOVY URENGOY. Jan 15 (Interfax) - Russian agencies and companies, with the exception of Gazprom , have endorsed the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry's proposals on access to the shelf, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sergei Donskoy said at a meeting dedicated to the shelf.
"Interested agencies of authority support the Natural Resources Ministry's proposals on the defined range. The Finance Ministry said that in the event of the expansion of the subjective make-up of the economic model on the shelf additional work will be required. Furthermore, Gazprom thinks it advisable to expand the subjective make-up of the entities working on the shelf only where subsidiaries of state companies are concerned," Donskoy said.
Support has not been found for the Natural Resources Ministry proposal for different shelf taxation systems for private and state companies, Donskoy said. The ministry had suggested earlier that there be breaks on the natural resource extraction tax (NRET) and the zeroing-out of export duties; but for private companies, in the event they are given access to the shelf, there should be a profit-tax system. "The Energy Ministry, Rosneft , Zarubezhneft, Gazprom, and Lukoil are against the parallel existence on the shelf of two tax regimes," Donskoy said.
