Belarus will lose up to BYN 951 million or about $420 mln in 2020, as Russia has terminated recustoms procedure agreement of Russian oil, Belarusian First Deputy Finance Minister Yuri Seliverstov said.
“Revenues from export customs duties on oil products will drop by BYN 537 million (~$262 mln). Revenues from the so-called recustoms procedure will drop by BYN 951 million (~$420 mln),” he stated.
In April 2017, Belarus and Russia signed an agreement on the recustoms procedure. As part of the deal, Russia was supposed to transfer the sum of customs duties from the export of 6 million tonnes of Russian oil to Belarus’s budget every year.
This “agreement on cooperation in the oil and gas sector” is valid through 2019. During the year, Belarusian officials were in talks to extend the agreement, however, the sides have not reached an agreement.
The official also noted that losses are expected due to Russia’s tax maneuver, possible price increases for the natural gas Belarus imports, falling prices and volumes of the export of potash fertilizers.
The total volume of budget revenue losses in 2020 is estimated at BYN 1.9 billion (~$927,859,110). At the present time, Minsk wants to compensate for losses from the deteriorating oil trade conditions, Moscow in response proposed to deepen integration in accordance with the 1999 Union State Treaty.
The Ministry of Finance of Belarus has previously estimated that budget losses from the implementation of the tax maneuver in Russia in 2019 will amount to about $400 million. Meanwhile, Belarus is also negotiating with Russia government on gas prices since 2020.
