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Belarusian Finance Ministry evaluating oil’s influence on state budget

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MINSK, 10 March (BelTA) – The Finance Ministry is now evaluating the influence of the oil factor on the state budget, BelTA learned from Belarusian Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Kiyko on 10 March.

The official said: “We are busy evaluating it. The work has been in progress since the beginning of the year because no agreements on oil deliveries have been secured yet, we are working in this manner.”

According to the source, the evaluation of the effect the oil factor has on the state budget will be ready once all the conditions of oil trade, in particular, import from the Russian Federation, are clear.

Asked how a surplus of the central state budget to the tune of Br0.9 billion was achieved in January, Dmitry Kiyko explained that tax revenues from the previous period had helped. “In January we had revenues from activities in the year 2019. Since taxes in Belarus are paid in the next period, the January revenues are related to December activities of commercial entities,” he specified.

BelTA reported earlier that in January and February 2020 Belarusian oil refineries operated at 50% of their capacity and processed about 1.8 million tonnes of oil. About 1 million tonnes of oil is supposed to be delivered in March. The oil refineries are going to process oil bought from the Azerbaijani company SOCAR as well as from traders, five small Russian companies, and SAFMAR Group.

Since prices on the global oil market are fluctuating, the Belarusian state petrochemical concern Belneftekhim is busy evaluating the situation in order to make further decisions on purchasing oil. Global oil prices plummeted the day before after OPEC+ countries failed to come to an agreement on further reducing oil extraction due to the falling demand caused by the coronavirus situation. Belarus’ budget for the year 2020 expects oil of the Urals variety to cost $60 per barrel.

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