MINSK, 25 October (BelTA) – Belarusian Finance Minister Yuri Seliverstov talked to reporters before a session of the Council of Ministers. How Belarus will repay and refinance the foreign debt in 2023 was mentioned among other things, BelTA has learned.
Yuri Seliverstov said: “As for foreign debt payments next year, our unfriendly colleagues will have to settle for the existing interim procedure. As long as sanctions against the National Bank remain in place, payment options will be restricted. So it is not on us. As for our Russian and Chinese colleagues, we are working with them. I think we will partially refinance the debt on the Russian market. Issues with debt payments have been partially resolved with the Russian Federation this year. Some of the payments were rescheduled for later.”
Apart from that, the Belarusian-Russian agreement on general principles of collecting indirect taxes – the value-added tax (VAT) and excise duties has resolved the problem of the tax maneuver in Russia's oil industry for Belarus. “Within the framework of tax legislation harmonization we will be getting reverse excise duties on oil just like in Russia. It will give us additional non-debt sources to replenish the state budget as early as from 1 January. We will be getting about Br1.7 billion in reverse excise duties,” the finance minister said.
