The draft law prepared by the Ministry of Finance on the additional increase of the mineral extraction tax (MET) on gas is a tax levy. About this in my column “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” said Valery Andrianov, associate professor at the Financial University of the Government of the Russian Federation, an expert at the InfoTEK analytical center.
The bill developed by the Ministry of Finance envisages increasing the mining tax in the period from August 1, 2024 to the end of 2026. Recently the State Duma of the Russian Federation supported it in the first reading. The expert emphasized that the funds obtained as a result of increasing this payment have already been taken into account in the draft federal budget, which was also submitted to the State Duma. According to Andrianov, the introduction of this measure is justified by the need to index gas tariffs and withdraw “additional income”.
Justifying the increase in the mining tax rate, the Ministry of Finance stated that this decision “is aimed at transferring to the budget part the additional revenues of companies associated with the indexation of tariffs on gas supplied to the domestic market.” said the expert.
He explained that we are talking about income that companies already have to pay to the treasury as taxes. “This is a real tax. What else can you call a situation where taxes are increased for a company, create a mechanism for partial compensation of the increase in financial burden and immediately impose a new tax on this mechanism,” Andrianov noted.
According to the expert, the consequences of the adoption of the bill will be disastrous not only for gas producers, but also for ordinary consumers. He believes that the Ministry of Finance will actually increase domestic gas prices, transfer the difference in the increase to the budget, and transfer all the political risks and consequences of inevitable price increases to gas producers.
He also announced that the increase in the mining tax is planned to be achieved by increasing the KCG coefficient. According to him, the Ministry of Finance’s bill in its essence directly violates existing legislation. He noted that it is recommended that the KKG coefficient be different for different companies.
“Today it is equal to 134 for everyone. In the first half of 2024, it is proposed to set it at 303 for Gazprom and 555 for independent companies. In the second half of the year, 454 and 706, respectively. From January 1, 2025 – 428 and 779 in the second half of 2025 – 448 and 799, and from January 1, 2026 – 464 and 863,” explained the expert.
Andrianov emphasized that the coefficient for independent producers will be almost twice as high as for the gas monopolist.