29 Oct 2010 14:18

Reducing tax burden on oil sector could give Russian budget over 2 trln rubles - Lukoil

SAMARA. Oct 29 (Interfax) - Russia's budget could receive an additional 2.2 trillion rubles if the tax burden on several oil refining enterprises is reduced by 18%, Ravil Maganov, OJSC Lukoil's first vice president, said at a meeting on a draft of the general plan for the oil sector until 2020.

"With a decrease of 18% in the tax burden, which is considerably less than what is needed for several new fields today in Eastern Siberia, the budget could receive an additional 2.2 trillion rubles and oil reserves can be boosted by almost 220 million tonnes," Maganov said.

He added that the general plan did not include these recent initiatives on the chance that extraction taxes for 2012 and 2013 could be increased.

"As the present analysis shows, the increase under consideration would secure revenue increases for the budget from the oil sector over the initial years but over the midterm, 10 years, the budget could sustain losses owing to the declining investment attractiveness of new drilling and the introduction of new reserves, especially at old fields," Maganov said.