DUSHANBE, November 13, 2012, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan reportedly does not agree with separate points of an agreement with Russia on resuming selling duty-free gasoline to Tajikistan.
An official source in the Tajik government says official Dushanbe cannot guarantee that Russian duty-free gasoline will not be re-exported to the third countries.
“Russia demands that Tajikistan prevent re-export of imported Russian duty-free oil products to the third countries, for example to Afghanistan; otherwise, Russia may annul the agreement and impose export duty on its oil products for Tajikistan again and reduce fuel exports to Tajikistan.” the source said.
According to some sources, a meeting of Tajik and Russian representatives on preparation of a draft agreement on selling Russian duty-free oil products to Tajikistan has ended without result because of this point.
The Tajik side reportedly wants the point banning re-export of Russian duty-free oil products to the third countries to be removed from the agreement.
We will recall that a memorandum on the conditions of Russian oil product deliveries to Tajikistan was signed between the Ministry of Energy and Industries of Tajikistan and the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation in Dushanbe on October 5. 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. According to some sources, the agreement is expected to be of indefinite duration and indicative fuel balance will be reviewed every year.
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.
Current export duty on Russian light oil is 276.40 U.S. dollars per ton and the export duty on Russian gasoline is 377.00 U.S. dollars per ton.
Russia now accounts for 50 percent of Tajikistan’s fuel imports, which is 45 percent lower than in 2010. Meanwhile, a share of Turkmenistan in Tajikistan’s fuel imports has increased – from 11 percent in 2011 to 19.8 percent.
The price of one liter of 92-octane gasoline in Dushanbe has risen from 6.40 somoni in June to 6.70 somoni, with similar prices rises in other parts of the country.
Experts from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT) say the restoration of the tax-free status will result in gasoline prices falling 30-40 percent in Tajikistan.
