Russian steelmakers must repay 100 bln rubles in excess profits earned at state's expense - Belousov
MOSCOW. May 31 (Interfax) - Russian steel companies face a new tax grab, as First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said they will have to return to the government 100 billion rubles in excess profits earned on high prices for products supplies for state-financed projects.
The government calculated that steelmakers overcharged it "by about 100 billion rubles in regard to state capital investments and government defense contracts," Belousov said in an interview on RBC TV.
"I said to some of them, guys, I'm not even going to think right now about how to get [this amount] from you - some tax, through the mineral extraction tax. The only thing is that the price tag is [100 billion rubles]," Belousov said.
He said steelmakers "of course understand" that they will have to repay excess profits to the government, but a decision has not been made yet on how to collect the money. "We have a free market, but the government has every possibility to set taxes in such a way as to take what they received. This is what we'll do, I think," Belousov said.