Pressure on domestic retail prices for petroleum products from world oil prices will be reduced by reconfiguring the current mechanism for stabilizing fuel prices. The corresponding bill in the first reading of the State Duma will be considered in plenary.
The document, introduced by the State Duma deputies headed by the chairman of the Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes Andrei Makarov, provides for the adjustment of the parameters of the currently used "damping mechanism" aimed at stabilizing prices for motor gasoline and diesel fuel on the domestic market from July 1, 2019.
“The purpose of the adjustments is to reconfigure the current price stabilization mechanism in order to reduce pressure from world oil prices on domestic retail prices for oil products,” the explanatory note says.
The authors of the document, in particular, propose reducing the conditional average wholesale price established in the Tax Code for the domestic sale of motor gas from 56 thousand rubles to 51 thousand rubles per ton (41 rubles per 1 liter at gas stations) and diesel fuel from 50 thousand rubles to 46 thousand rubles per ton (41,75 rubles per liter).
It also envisages an annual increase in the conditional wholesale prices of domestic sales of motor gasoline and diesel fuel by 5% until 2024 inclusive. At the same time, it is proposed to increase the compensation coefficient from 0,6 to 0,75 in relation to motor gasoline and to 0,7 in relation to diesel fuel in 2019, and starting in 2020, from 0,5 to 0,68 in relation to motor gasoline and up to 0,65 in relation to diesel fuel.
In addition, from August 1, 2019, in relation to aviation kerosene purchased by aircraft operators, the bill provides for the introduction of a reverse excise tax applicable at high world oil prices (more than $ 70 per barrel), depending on the difference in the average price of the export alternative for aviation kerosene and the average wholesale selling price of aviation kerosene in the domestic market, with its subsequent indexation of 5% annually until 2024 inclusive. Currently, the price of jet fuel in the Tax Code for 2019 is set at 48 rubles per ton.