MINSK, 6 December (BelTA) – Prices for automobile fuel in Belarus will be affected in the absence of compensations for changes in the taxation of the Russian oil industry, BelTA learned from Svetlana Gurina, Deputy Chairwoman of the Belarusian state petrochemical concern Belneftekhim.
In her words, Belneftekhim has chosen to raise automobile fuel prices by one kopeck per week in order to bring retail fuel prices to the economically justified level as painlessly as possible for Belarusian motorists.
According to Svetlana Gurina, prices for automobile fuel in Belarus remain way below prices in most of the neighboring countries. Only prices in Russia are below the Belarusian ones by an insignificant margin – up to 7%. “But due to the lack of compensations Belarusian oil refineries will have to increase the gap [between the Belarusian market] and the Russian one where fuel prices will be kept low with state subsidies,” she noted.
Automobile fuel prices in Belarus will be adjusted bearing in mind the purchasing price for oil, the exchange rate of the Belarusian ruble, and tax payments, which make up about one third of the fuel's cost now.
