The Ministry of Finance proposed to halve the damper for fuel from July

The Russian Ministry of Finance proposes to halve the damper for fuel from July 1, since now, in fact, the margin of oil refiners is formed at the expense of the budget. About it informed Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov to journalists.

The damping mechanism in the oil industry was introduced in Russia in 2019 to contain prices in the domestic fuel market. It involves a reverse excise tax for manufacturers. If gasoline and diesel fuel are more expensive abroad than on the domestic market, then the state compensates refineries for part of this difference in order to encourage them not to raise prices in Russia. Otherwise, oil companies transfer part of their excess profits to the budget. In the summer of 2022, the mechanism was adjusted – from September 1, 2022 until 2025, the discount for Urals to the reference Brent will be taken into account in the formula.

“At present, the damper, in fact, goes to the margin of oil refiners. The margin of processors today is 8,000 rubles. per ton, before it was less than 2000 rubles. per ton. If you look where it comes from – due to the damper. It turns out that we pay the margin to oil refiners from the budget, ”Interfax quotes him as saying.

The Ministry of Finance cannot ignore this fact, and therefore proposes to introduce a coefficient of 0.5 when calculating the damper, Siluanov emphasized, fixing it from July 2023 to July 2024.

As a result, payments to oilmen from the budget will decrease by 30 billion rubles. per month, he said.

When adjusting the damper, it is important, according to Siluanov, that the FAS control the situation with prices for petroleum products on the domestic market.

“I have said this before, that the prices for diesel fuel, let’s say today we have such, as if there is no damper. That is, prices have already won back the norm a long time ago,” he said.

How wrote Vedomosti in December last year, for 11 months of 2022, the oil industry received about 2.1 trillion rubles from the budget, which is three times more than in the whole of 2021.

The wholesale price of AI-95 gasoline increased by 7.4% and on April 20 reached its maximum since the beginning of the year – 53,878 rubles/ton, wrote formerly Vedomosti. Exchange prices for AI-92 gasoline also showed similar dynamics during this period: a ton of fuel rose by 7.5% to 48,175 rubles. But so far it is about 1,000 rubles/t lower than the peak value of this year.

At the same time, the volume of AI-92 sales on the stock exchange over the same period increased by 20.6% to 14,212 tons, while the demand for AI-95, on the contrary, decreased by 1.7% to 6,966 tons. Despite changes in wholesale prices, According to Rosstat, retail prices for petroleum products in Russia have remained virtually unchanged since the beginning of the year.