Belarus To Receive “Interbudgetary Compensation” From Russia To Pay For Gas

The Russian side is ready to launch an “interbudgetary compensation mechanism”.

On October 10, Belarusian Prime Minister Andrei Kabyakou discussed the “gas issue” on the phone with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

The result of the negotiations is as follows: Belarus is not going to have a discount for the gas, Russia didn’t give in to this. Our country will have to transfer the entire amount, underpaid since the beginning of the year.

However, the Russian side is ready to launch an “interbudgetary compensation mechanism”, which eventually will enable Belarus to compensate for the difference between the actual gas prices and the desired ones, Euroradio reports.

“The mechanism of formation of natural gas prices for Belarusian commercial organizations in 2016 was retained similar to the previous year,” – the press secretary of the Belarusian Prime Minister Uladzimir Sychevich says. – In this connection, the Belarusian side confirmed its readiness to transfer the reserved from the beginning of the year funds to the accounts of gas suppliers.

At the same time, the Russian side confirmed its readiness use the mechanism of inter-budgetary compensation, which will provide the funds which the Belarusian side will use, first of all, to reduce the price of gas for domestic consumers.”

The prices of gas for Belarusian and Russian consumers will gradually approximate each other so as to become equal for energy producers before July 1, 2019, and to become equal for all the other gas consumers by January 1, 2025.