Finance, Energy Ministries may work out single gas tax formula in Dec - Shatalov
VIENTIANE (LAOS). Nov 6 (Interfax) - Russia's Finance and Energy Ministries figure to work out a single formula for calculating the natural resource extraction tax (NRET) on gas next months, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov has told the press.
The ministries have not been able to find common ground on this - each taking a different approach to calculating the formula. The Energy Ministry suggests separate rates for gas and condensate, but the Finance Ministry thinks the NRET ought to applied to a project in its entirety, without a separation between gas and condensate.
"These are two different approaches, they cannot be combined. We are only still at the beginning of the discussion," Shatalov said.
A single formula could be worked out by the end of the year, he said. "It will not likely appear in the coming month. It might be ready by December. Perhaps a little later we will be able to agree on something, because we already have competing principles and approaches," he said.
The Finance Ministry does not back offering to Gazprom any kind of separate new breaks on deposits that are already in operation or will be soon. Nor does it think justifiable giving the company compensation for revenues that dropped after NRET indexation at the start of the year and tariff increases this summer.
"We have not increased the NRET, as we have wanted to, for three years. Instead of the planned 80%, we are collecting all of 40% - that is a very good bonus," Shatalov said.