Russia can leave Belarus without oil duties

Belarus's opportunity to keep export duties on oil products in the country's budget in 2016 will be a subject of negotiations.

Belarus's opportunity to keep export duties on oil products from Russian oil in the country's budget in 2016, as in 2015, will be a subject of negotiations. The agreement will give 1.5-2 billion dollars to the Belarusian budget (depending on oil prices) this year, Belorusski Partizan reports.

“We completely refused from receiving export duties only in 2015. The decision on the year 2016 will appear only in the middle of 2015,” Russia's deputy minister of finance Sergei Shatalov told Vedomosti.

Belarus paid Russia annually around 3-4 billion dollars of export duties on petroleum products made from Russian duty-free oil. Minsk received the right to keep $1.5 billion of export duties in the Belarusian budget in 2015. The Belarusian authorities claimed for additional compensation for Russia's tax maneuver, which is to gradually decrease export duties on oil and increase the mineral extraction tax on oil. Aliaksandr Lukashenka estimates Belarus's losses from the tax maneuver at more than $1 billion. The parties reached an agreement in October 2014.

All revenues from export duties on oil products to the Belarusian budget will be spent on paying the external debt. Belarus has to pay $3 billion of debt and $1 billion of debt service in 2015. It will be paid from export duties on petroleum products (estimated $1.9 billion) and customs duties on the export of oil (estimated $334.6 million).