Russian Finance Ministry, Miners To Discuss MET Increase For Fertilizers, Ores On Thursday

Sumaira FH Published September 16, 2020 | 09:28 PM

The Russian Finance Ministry plans to discuss on Thursday with mining companies an increase in the mineral extraction tax (MET) for fertilizers and ores, which may bring additional 56 billion rubles ($750 million) in budget revenues in 2021, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2020) The Russian Finance Ministry plans to discuss on Thursday with mining companies an increase in the mineral extraction tax (MET) for fertilizers and ores, which may bring additional 56 billion rubles ($750 million) in budget revenues in 2021, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Kommersant newspaper reported, citing a source, wrote that the ministry proposed to increase the tax on the extraction of certain fertilizers and ores from the beginning of next year by applying a "rental coefficient" of 3.5 to potash salts, apatite-nepheline, apatite and phosphorite ores, natural salts and pure sodium chloride, as well as non-metallic mining raw materials, non-ferrous metal ores and iron ore.

"We will meet with companies tomorrow, we will discuss our proposals," Siluanov said.

"If we talk about the effective rate on MET that we have today, if we take it to revenue, then for precious stones it is 85, for precious metals it is about 6 percent of revenue. For multi-component ores it's 1.7 percent maximum, but many companies even pay less than 1 percent. For mineral fertilizers it's 0.3-0.5 percent. If you look at other countries, it is mainly 3, 4, 5 percent and somewhere even 10 percent. Therefore, when we determined this coefficient 3.5, then they wanted to maintain the level of tax exemptions for precious stones and precious metals, without touching them. And to raise all the rest to the level of 4 percent to make an effective MET rate to the proceeds," the minister explained.

"As for the money that we will receive from this, according to our estimates, this is about 56 billion rubles for 2021," Siluanov added.