DUSHANBE, January 8, 2013, Asia-Plus — The Russian Federation has set new export duties on its oil products.
By government’s decree, the export duty on light oil is lowered from US$261.70 for December, 2012 to US$261.10 for January, 2013, the Russian government’s official website reports. The export duty on gasoline was also lowered from US$356.80 for December, 2012 to US$356.00 for January, 2013.
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 in October, 2012. On October 5, 2012, 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 imported 329,000 tons of oil products over the first eleven months of last year, which was 97,000 tons fewer than in the same period of 2011.
Meanwhile, negotiations on the conditions of Russian oil product deliveries to Tajikistan are going on and an agreement is expected to be signed here in mid-January during Russian foreign minister’s visit to Tajikistan.
