DUSHANBE, November 27, 2012, Asia-Plus — The Russian government has lowered expert duties on its oil products. Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev signed an appropriate decree on this subject on November 22.
According to information posted on the Russian government’s official website, the export duty on gasoline will be lowered from 364.10 USD per ton to 356.80 USD beginning on December 1 and the export duty on light oil will be lowered from 267.00 USD per ton to 261.70 USD.
We will recall that Tajikistan was exempted from paying Russian tariffs on oil and gas exports from 1995-2010 and Russia cancelled Tajikistan’s tax exemption on May 1, 2010 that resulted in gasoline prices rising in the country. A sudden spike was reported in May 2011, when export duty for Russian gasoline rose 44 percent as compared with April 2011.
The issue of restoration of the tax-free status for the Russian oil products exported to Tajikistan was raised during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s to Tajikistan that took place last month. On October 5, the Ministry of Energy and Industries of Tajikistan and the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation signed a memorandum on the conditions of Russian oil product deliveries to Tajikistan. The memorandum provides for signing of the government-to-government agreement on the tax-free delivery of Russian oil products to Tajikistan.
The Russian side is reportedly ready to deliver one million tons of oil products to Tajikistan free of tax per year. Russia, however, demands that Tajikistan prevent re-export of imported Russian duty-free oil products to the third countries; otherwise, Russia may annul the agreement and impose export duty on its oil products for Tajikistan again and reduce fuel exports to Tajikistan.
According to the statistical data from the Customs Service, Tajikistan has imported 296,700 tons of oil products over the first ten months of this year. Russia’s share in Tajikistan’s fuel imports has decreased from 92 percent in 2010 to 58 percent this year.
