MINSK, 22 May (BelTA) – The Belarusian Finance Ministry will evaluate how much revenue the state budget has lost due to the situation around poor-quality Russian oil using results of H1 2019, BelTA learned from Belarusian Finance Minister Maksim Yermolovich during the Council of Ministers session held on 22 May to discuss social and economic development results.
The official said: “As for the situation concerning oil deliveries and problems relating to some forced suspension of the work of oil refineries, we will feel its effect a little later. The situation has not affected state budget revenues yet. Most likely we will see these lost revenues at the end of the first half of the year.”
“Bearing in mind H1 2019 results, we will endeavor to evaluate the execution of the state budget over the year. We are going to evaluate additional revenues from individual sources and will see which sources of revenue will underperform,” the finance minister specified.
Maksim Yermolovich pointed out that the task to replenish the budget in line with the budget law remains in place and the Finance Ministry is going to fulfill it.
Speaking about budget execution in January-April 2019, the official noted it was roughly in line with this year's plan although there were certain deviations as far as revenues are concerned. Maksim Yermolovich attributed the situation to the redistribution of budget revenue sources. “Revenues from the profit tax are somewhat lower. At the same time revenues from the export of potash fertilizers are ahead of the target,” he specified. Belarus' budget is also getting extra revenues from oil prices higher than those the budget law specifies.
“On the whole, we are managing to execute this year's budget. There are no shortfalls, however, we may not hope for some considerable extra revenues either,” Maksim Yermolovich concluded.
On 19 April Belneftekhim registered a massive decrease in the quality of the Russian oil mixture Urals flowing in transit into the main oil pipeline section operated by OAO Polotsktransneft Druzhba. The concentration of chlororganic compounds in oil exceeded standard thresholds dozens of times over. Both Belarusian oil refineries – OAO Naftan and Mozyr Oil Refinery – were forced to reduce their workload and have experienced financial losses. Naftan is now operating at 65% of its capacity.
