Russia introduces mandatory sales of forex earnings for major exports for six months
MOSCOW. Oct 12 (Interfax) - The Russian authorities announced on Wednesday evening that they are introducing mandatory sales of foreign currency earnings on the domestic market for the country's largest exporters for a period of six months in order to stabilize the ruble's exchange rate.
President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on "implementation of mandatory sales of foreign currency revenues earned by certain Russian exporters on foreign trade agreements (contracts)."
The decree, which has not yet been posted on the Kremlin website, approves a list of companies that will be subject to mandatory repatriation and sale of forex earnings, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
"In accordance with the decree, a list of such exporters is being approved. They will have to start depositing earned foreign currency in their accounts at authorized banks as of the date set by the Russian government and carry out mandatory sales of this foreign currency on the domestic market," Peskov said.
The "percentage of forex that will be subject to mandatory sale will be determined by the Russian government," Peskov said. The mandatory forex sales will be monitored by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service.
"In accordance with the decree and in order to implement it, this federal service will appoint authorized representatives at those very Russian exporters. The decree spells out in detail the powers of the representatives who will be appointed to the companies," Peskov said.
The government has been ordered to approve acts needed to implement the decree within seven days and to notify Russian exporters about their inclusion in the list.
The government press service said the amounts and deadlines for mandatory forex sales will be set by a separate cabinet order within a day.
The decree also requires certain companies to provide indicative schedules for forex purchases and sales on the domestic market to the Central Bank and Financial Monitoring Service. Authorized representatives of the latter will be installed at certain companies to monitor and ensure compliance with currency regulations, the press service said.
The list includes 43 groups of companies in the "fuel and energy sector, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy, chemical and forestry industries and the grain business," the press service said.
"The main goal of these measures is to create long-term conditions for increasing the transparency and predictability of the forex market, and reduce possibilities for forex speculation. We expect that the obligations to sell forex revenue being introduced will not become burdensome for ethical market participants," First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov was quoted as saying in the press release.