| The Tax Ministry presented another invoice to Sibneft The Ministry of Taxes and Duties will not stop issuing invoices to Sibneft based on the results of the company’s work in 2000-2001. After it became known earlier this week about claims against the parent company in the amount of about $700-800 million, tax officials made public similar claims against Sibneft's main producing subsidiary, Noyabrskneftegaz. The audit report carried out last December states that the company underpaid $420 million to the budgets. The subject of the audit, as reported by Interfax, was the correctness of the calculation, withholding and transfer of VAT, deductions for replenishing the mineral resource base, land tax and other payments. In other words, the Tax Ministry is haunted by the tax optimization carried out by Sibneft, due to which the state allegedly lost, according to tax officials announced yesterday, at least $1.2 billion. The amount of similar claims against YUKOS, for comparison, is $3 billion .
The oil company's press secretary, Alexey Firsov, shrugs: “We repeat once again and will prove to the Ministry of Taxes (not in court, but through negotiations. - Ed. ) that all the companies of the group have already repeatedly checked various authorities for the completeness of payment of taxes - - in particular the Accounts Chamber, for which special thanks go to it - and no violations were found.” However, the Accounts Chamber, as is known, had claims against Sibneft and its main owner Roman Abramovich, but they were “moral” and related to the oligarch’s purchase of the English football club Chelsea. Tax optimization was recognized as legal.
The Tax Ministry still does not comment on the claims against Sibneft and its subsidiary. A source in the ministry says that in December a huge number of audits related to the payment of taxes in 2000 were carried out, since the due date for their implementation was expiring. Now they are being made public “in portions”. “As far as I know,” says the source, “YUKOS and Sibneft simply became the first signs.” Considering the political situation in the country, it is quite possible to expect that claims will soon appear against a number of other companies.” The source declined to say which companies might receive an invoice in the near future.
It is significant that yesterday’s information about the new “accounts” did not affect the price of shares of either Sibneft or other blue chips. True, quotes for Sibneft securities on the RTS after the release of the tax audit report data decreased (by only 1%), but still gained 0.31% at the end of the trading session. Nikolay GORELOV |
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