Belarus to lower oil, petroleum product export duties to Russian level Aug 1
MINSK. July 30. (Interfax) - Belarus will bring its export duties on oil and petroleum products in line with the Russian level on August 1, 2012, according to a Council of Ministers order dated July 26 and published on the National Legal Internet Portal.
The Belarusian export duty for oil will be reduced by 8.9% to $336.6 per tonne on that date, compared to $369.3/tonne established on July 1.
The single export duty for light and dark petroleum products besides gasoline, which was unified at 66% of the oil duty on October 1, will come to $222.1/tonne on August 1, compared to the $243.7/tonne in place since July 1. That same duty will apply to benzene, toluene and xylenes, as well.
Commercial gasoline and straight-run gasoline will get export duties based on a coefficient of 0.9, at $302.9, replacing the old $332.4/tonne in July. The duty for propane, butane, ethylene, propylene, butylene, butadiene and other liquefied gases will be reduced from $133 to $68.9.
Pursuant to an intergovernmental agreement signed on December 9, 2010 that regulates the mechanism for distributing export duties for oil and petroleum products, Belarus pays all the export duties for petroleum products derived from Russian oil to the Russian budget.
Export duties for petroleum products derived from oil originating from third countries go into the Belarusian budget. The document also stipulates that Russia will supply Belarus with duty-free oil starting on January 1, 2011.
Belarus completely unified export duties for oil and petroleum products to the Russian level in 2010.
The Russian government approved a new scheme for calculating export duties for petroleum products that went into effect on October 1 of last year. This 60/66 system calls for reducing the marginal coefficient in the formula for calculating the export duty on oil from 0.65 to 0.6. At the same time, the government raised export duties on dark oil products from 47% to 66% of the duty on oil and on gasoline from 66% to 90%. The idea was to stimulate oil production at existing fields in West Siberia and encourage deeper oil refining.