Belarus to start receiving from Russia reverse excise tax on oil in April - ambassador

MINSK. April 10 (Interfax) - Belarus will start receiving from Russia reverse excise tax on oil in April 2023 in accordance with agreements, Belarusian Ambassdor in Moscow Dmitry Krutoi said.

"Starting in the current month, Belarus will start receiving money from the compensation of reverse excise tax in accordance with the agreements reached last year as part of the implementation of the union integration program in the tax sector," the BelTA state-owned news agency quoted Krutoi as saying on Sunday.

"Certainly, we're not taking our question of an equal access to 'the pipe', the same as Russian oil producers have, off the table so that our conditions are not worse than during export of Russian oil to markets of the third countries," he said.

As for the formation of price of crude oil, companies themselves will agree on that, the Belarusian ambassador said. "And if they unable to reach agreements, we request that it would be some kind of a mixed joint commission capable of making final decisions in light of all aspects, because it is important for us, Belarus, to maintain the price parity on ready petroleum products within 10% or 15%. And the very same declining prices of fuel happening in our country today, they are happening as part of this polity of price balancing between the markets of the two countries, it is important not to miss it, it is effectively happening every week," he said.

Belarusian Finance Minister Yury Seliverstov said earlier that Belarus expects to receive from Russia in 2023 reverse excise tax on oil totaling 1.7 billion Belarusian rubles ($581 million at the current exchange rate of the country's National Bank).