The government will prepare a bill to complete the tax maneuver in the oil industry; its parameters were discussed at a meeting on June 6 in the evening between Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak and oil companies.

As a participant in the meeting told Vedomosti, the key parameters of the tax maneuver were fixed at the meeting - the abolition of export duties on oil by reducing duties by 5% per year for six years, as well as the introduction of a negative excise tax on oil for refineries.

Kozak's representative confirmed that the parameters for completing the tax maneuver were discussed, but refused to discuss details. “A corresponding bill will be developed as soon as possible, which will contain specific parameters for completing the tax maneuver. The government intends to discuss its main provisions with the participation of oil companies as early as next week,” said deputy prime minister’s representative Ilya Dzhus. The agreements with the oil industry on May 30 to fix retail prices for fuel are generally being implemented by the main industry players and the situation on the market has been stabilized, he added.

The tax maneuver - increasing the mineral extraction tax and reducing export duties - was started in 2015. The reform was supposed to be completed in 2017, when duties would have dropped to 30%, but in 2016 the Ministry of Finance proposed eliminating them completely, proportionately increasing the tax on mineral extraction minerals (MET). But the reform was actively resisted by the Ministry of Energy and oil workers. In their opinion, zeroing duties will lead to an increase in the domestic price of oil and a decrease in refinery margins.

The Ministry of Finance is ready to provide compensation to businesses - negative excise taxes on oil, as well as lower excise taxes on petroleum products. And for refineries that have completed the construction of deep oil refining complexes, increasing coefficients will be introduced to the base rate of negative excise tax, said Alexey Sazanov, director of the department of tax and customs policy of the Ministry of Finance.

Such an excise tax can also be used to compensate oil workers for the increase in excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, it follows from the protocol. This year they will be reduced by 3,700 and 2,700 rubles/t, respectively, but such a reduction will only apply until the end of 2018.

The idea is to add a component to the negative excise tax mechanism on oil, which will increase as export prices for petroleum products rise, explained Sergei Yezhov, chief economist at Vygon Consulting. It will be paid only for the supply of motor gasoline and diesel fuel to the domestic market in order to limit price increases for consumers without losses for companies, and to smooth out the volatility of world prices and the ruble exchange rate. Such support could cost the budget up to 300 billion rubles. per year, he estimated.

Faced with strong increases in gasoline prices in April-May this year, officials had to cut excise taxes and persuade oil companies not to raise retail prices. From May 28 to June 1, on average, retail prices increased by 93–94 kopecks. – up to 41.7 and 44.53 rubles. per liter AI-92 and AI-95, respectively, and for the entire May, gasoline prices increased by 11.8%. Rosneft . warned that lowering excise taxes would not solve the problem And the abolition of export duties by 2024 will lead to an increase in fuel prices by 1.5 times.

The company proposes to introduce temporary, for example three-month, quotas for fuel exports, company representative Mikhail Leontyev told Vedomosti on May 6. also Rosneft supports the idea of temporarily and sharply limiting the export of those types of fuel that are in short supply on the domestic market. But these are emergency measures. And to systemically streamline the situation, it is necessary to normalize taxation of the industry, he noted.

The press service of the Ministry of Finance did not comment on the tax maneuver. Vedomosti is awaiting comments from oil companies.

Deputy Prime Minister Kozak agreed with oil workers on the parameters of the tax maneuver