Sechin’s Press Secretary: “There is no certainty with Belarus, and it is unknown when it is to appear”
- 26.01.2010, 13:53
Moscow and Minsk cannot agree upon conditions of Russian oil export to Belarus.
On January 25 Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin started talks with the first deputy chairman of the government of Belarus Uladzimir Syamashka on conditions of oil deliveries from Russia to Belarus. The talks haven’t finished, they are to continue today, “Vedomosti” was told by a representative of Sechin’s office: “There is no certainty with Belarus, and it is unknown when it is to appear”.
Moscow and Minsk started a dispute over the scheme of oil deliveries back in December, as since January 1, 2010 the term of preferential scheme expires. Under the scheme, duties for oil exported to Belarus had 64.4-70.7% discount.
In the end of the last year Russia offered Belarus a concession, to sell oil for home consumption (6.3 million tons) without any duties, and set 100% of rate of duty for volumes over this quota. The Belarusian government was against such an approach: in the framework of the Customs Union there should be no customs duties used, Minsk is convinced.
Russia collects duties from oil importers to Belarus illegally, stated the chairman of the State Customs Committee of Belarus Alyaksandr Shpileuski on January 25. Under the agreement on the order of oil deliveries to Belarus since January 1 there should be no customs duties for oil, he said: “However Russia imposed duties. In this situation illegal actions of Russia and unilateral withdrawal from the agreement have taken place”.
“The position of Alyaksandr Shpileuski is not clear, as well as which draft law is meant,” Russian Premiere’s Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov is surprised. There is time till July 1 to define how duties would be collected in the framework of the Customs Union, he stated: “So far collecting duties is an obligation and prerogative of Russian authorities”.
Earlier official Minsk offered Moscow a different variant: to supply oil to Belarus free of duty in January – February 2010, and to work out a mechanism of inter-budgetary distribution of export duties within the framework of the Customs Union by March.
Now the agreement of the three countries regulates only duties for oil products in relations with third countries, but not inside the union, said a representative of the Customs Union Sergey Tkachuk. The Union means free movement of goods, it means that duties for imported and exported goods should be abolished, notes Marina Lyakisheva from DLA Piper: “The decision on the Customs Union of Russia and Belarus has a political nature, and conditions of deliveries are negotiable”.