Cut-off price for thermal coal duty being discussed at level of $150/tonne and above - Sazanov

MOSCOW. Oct 12 (Interfax) - The cut-off price at which an export duty on thermal coal could be introduced is being discussed at $150/tonne and higher, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Sazanov told reporters.

"Different cut-off price levels are being discussed, from $150 and higher for thermal [coal]. There has been no discussion of coking coal yet," he said in response to a related question.

According to Sazanov, the export duty rate for coal has not been determined yet. "There is no rate, the issue will only be discussed in November in terms of export duties, because there is a government decree on it. There is a desire to make an automatic mechanism that allows, if there are short-term fluctuations in prices leading to the formation of high incomes from coal miners, to tax these via export duties," he said.

Commenting on the discussion of the need to drop reference to Australian coal prices when taxing the coal industry, which now do not reflect the pricing of Russian coal, Sazanov said: "We are ready to discuss this. The main thing is not to lose budget revenues. There is a dialogue with the Energy Ministry, so far there are no concrete changes."

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said last week that the export duty on coal will most likely not operate in 2023 at current contract prices. "Today we have an average selling price of Russian coal on world markets in the East in the order of $130-140 [per tonne]. We have agreed with the coal companies that the cut-off price will be $150, that is, it is higher than the contract price that has taken shape in the market today. This means that if the price goes up then part of the excess profits above $150 will be collected for the budget, if it is lower - zero. Most likely, we won't collect anything from export duties from the coal industry next year," he said.

The total amount of additional budget revenues from coal duties is planned at a level of about 30 billion rubles, Belousov said.