Lukashenko arranged his “tax maneuver” for the gasoline kings of the Russian Federation

“What keeps us in the union if there are obstacles, barriers and exclusions all around,” Lukashenko said on February 27 at a meeting with the Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission, Mikhail Myasnikovich.

This was far from his first such remark; he never tires of repeating that he stands for the free movement of goods, services, labor and capital within the EAEU. However, the essence of such speeches, as a rule, comes down to the demand for domestic Russian energy prices for Belarus.

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At the same time, the republic itself, despite such rhetoric from the president, is also not averse to putting its own barriers in the way of union goods. Thus, according to the analytical report of the Eurasian Economic Commission for 2017, Belarus established 3 barriers, 7 exemptions, 33 restrictions. I doubt that by 2020 the situation has changed dramatically. Yesterday, Lukashenko personally signed a decree that put a barrier on the way of Russian gasoline and diesel fuel into his state.

Decree No. 84 “On excise taxes on motor fuel”, published today on the National Legal Internet Portal of Belarus, increases excise tax rates on motor gasoline and diesel fuel by 4 times, but at the same time, “in order to prevent an increase in retail prices”, sets a reduction factor of 0,25 at the same rates for some categories of payers.

This coefficient includes payers whose main activity is the production of petroleum products; the volume of fuel sales for the tax period preceding the month of shipment is at least 50 thousand tons. In addition, the excise tax payer must implement an investment project to modernize production

The cunning wording of the document means one thing - only two Belarusian enterprises can take advantage of the benefit - Novopolotsk Naftan and Mozyr Oil Refinery. And also those companies that buy fuel from them. The main target is Russian companies that supply fuel of their own production to the Belarusian market and refuse to supply oil to Belarus on Lukashenko’s terms.

Of course, he could not directly ban the sale of Russian gasoline - this would be too gross and a flagrant violation of all union agreements. But such a “tax maneuver” allows you to do the same thing without formally violating their letter. It would seem that the new decree is not aimed exclusively at Russian companies. Any other foreign automobile fuel also falls under it. The only nuance is that there is no such fuel in Belarus. Companies from other countries are not rushing to its fuel market.

The new rates are actually prohibitive. According to the decree, from March 1, the excise tax rate on motor gasoline that does not correspond to class 5 increased to 1924,32 rubles per ton, for class 5 - to 1194,36 rubles per ton. The excise tax rate on diesel fuel that does not comply with class 5 increased to 932,2 rubles per ton, for class 5 - to 737,32 rubles per ton. In fact, with this decree, the Belarusian president is trying to twist the arms of Russian business and is imposing on them his own conditions for oil supplies to the republic, once again increasing the degree of oil confrontation.

But will Russian oil workers, especially those from the Big Five, which have large networks of gas stations in Belarus, accept its conditions? This is far from a fact; this is not the public that will put up with such an attitude. Rather, the day is not far off when petrol will start running out at Belarusian gas stations.