Наверх

News

Economics

27.01.2010

Every avenue comes up an oil end

So far the New Year has brought nothing but puzzles to the Union State. The news leaves citizens at a loss . What is going on with our countries? Belarus and Russia have celebrated the 10th anniversary of the union state and all of a sudden stopped to understand each other?

So far the New Year has brought nothing but puzzles to the Union State. The news leaves citizens at a loss . What is going on with our countries? Belarus and Russia have celebrated the 10th anniversary of the union state and all of a sudden stopped to understand each other?

The stumbling block is the tariff on oil. Of course the price of the question is high, but it should be solved: pipelines and tanks stand for the well-being of quite specific people. And it is not only the separate individuals getting their piece of cake from the oil dish; it concerns common citizens of the Union State. And the Europe is worried bearing in mind the last year’s troubles.

The more is getting clear from the situation the more complicated it becomes. On the Belarusian part the chairman of State Customs Committee Alexandra Shpilevskaya claimed the Russia imposed the dues illegally on the oil delivery in Belarus.

The chairman of SCC gave the reasons for the position pointing on the Agreement between Belarus and Russia signed a year ago on the levy of custom dues in the mutual trade. According to this Agreement a reduced coefficient for oil was defined. A. Shpilevskaya considers that upon the completion of the validation period for reduced coefficient, starting from the 1st of January, the custom dues should not be taken at all. But “the Russian part left the Agreement unilaterally and in fact levies the custom dues on oil delivery in Belarus illegally”.

The Russian part doesn’t see any illegal actions on the levy of custom dues on oil being delivered to Belarus. The spokesman of Vladimir Putin Dmitrii Peskov declared that “the dues being defined on the oil delivery can be resolved by the 1st of Luly” and till the moment “the levy of dues is the obligation and prerogative of the Russian part”

In the end we have a stalemate: Belarus talks of the maintenance of the Agreement conditions, and the Russian part doesn’t understand what Agreement is being discussed. Time goes, oil flows, the dues are being levied.

It would be worthy to mention a recent event of the Russian oil market: according to the magazine “Kommersant-Dengi” the Russian government abolished all dues on oil exported by the company from the eastern regions to China from the 1st of October 2009 . According to the most conservative estimates the Russian budget will loose about 4 billions dollars in 2010.

The Arguments with Belarus look even stranger on the background. There are only facts and no understanding. It is only left to wait…