Russian Duma ratifies new terms of loan for Belarusian NPP

MOSCOW. Sept 21 (Interfax) - Russia's State Duma on Wednesday ratified a protocol to grant a one-year extension on the period of use of a Russian export credit to Belarus for the construction of two nuclear generating units and stipulate repayment of the debt in rubles.

The Russian government submitted the document (No. 421357-8) to parliament for ratification in August.

Under the protocol, the credit will be used by Belarus from 2011 to 2023 instead of the previous 2011-2022. Belarus was supposed to start repaying the debt six months after the nuclear power plant went into operation but not later on April 1, 2023, so this date will be postponed to April 1, 2024.

The protocol also stipulates that all payments on the debt will be made only in Russian rubles, whereas now Belarus has the option to pay in rubles or U.S. dollars.

The other financial parameters of the credit, such as its size - up to $10 billion to finance 90% of the cost of every contract between the Russian general contractor and the Belarusian customer - and the interest rate - 3.3% on every used portion of the credit - will remain unchanged.

According to the financial feasibility study, Russian federal budget revenues will decrease by $173.2 million to $88.6 million in 2023, but increase by $526.2 million in 2024-2038 and total $6.655 billion.