Astana, Kazakhstan, Feb.13
By Daniyar Mukhtarov - Trend:
Kazakh oil producing companies consider a rate of custom duty on oil export at $40 per ton acceptable, Baltabek Kuandykov, the President of Association of Petroleum Geologists of Kazakhstan, told Trend.
"Oil workers proposed to reduce the size of customs duty on oil export by almost twice - from $80 to $40 per metric ton in order to keep production plans and implement their planned projects," he said.
He went on to add that Association of Petroleum Geologists Kazakhstan raised the issue about the need to reduce export customs duty since the beginning of 2015, taking into account the situation with the decline in world oil prices.
"It is clear that the size of oil export customs duties is an issue that requires maintaining a balance of interests," said Kuandykov. "On the one hand, the amount of revenues to the state budget from the sale of our oil on the world markets depends namely on this customs duty. And the budget includes costs for many social programs."
It was earlier reported that on Feb.11 the Kazakh national economy minister Yerbolat Dossayev said that Kazakhstan would reduce the oil export customs duty from $80 to $60 per one metric ton.
Kazakhstan's energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik also said that the government would optimize taxes for mining enterprises until the end of the first quarter of 2015.
The rate of the oil export customs duty in Kazakhstan stands at $80 per one metric ton. The cost of the oil production on average amounts to $50 per barrel in Kazakhstan.
Edited by CN