DUSHANBE, November 16, 2012, Asia-Plus — Russia has sent a draft agreement on duty-free fuel deliveries for consideration to Tajikistan.
An official source at the Ministry of Energy and Industries (MoEI) says the draft agreement consisting of eleven articles was sent to Tajik Deputy Minister of Energy and Industries, Zarobiddin Fayzulloyev, on November 13.
Under Article 3 of this draft agreement, the sides must consider the indicative fuel balance for the next calendar year (form October 1, 2012 to October 1, 2013) and sign the agreement taking into account Tajikistan’s economic growth.
Article 6 notes that oil products delivered from Russia to Tajikistan in the volumes not exceeding those agreed on indicative balance are not subject to re-export to the third countries. This ban also applies to Russian oil products delivered to Tajikistan from other member nations of the Customs Union.
In the event of establishing breaking the mentioned ban, the sides and their competent bodies carry out conciliation. If the sides fail to reach mutually acceptable agreements within two months, the Russian side reserves the right to suspend duty-free fuel deliveries to Tajikistan.
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.
On October 5 this year, 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. According to some sources, the agreement is expected to be of indefinite duration and indicative fuel balance will be reviewed every year.
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.
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.
