KYIV, September 22 – Ukraine’s parliament delayed a substantial rise in import duties on diesel and petrol until January 1, 2001 to prevent fuel shortages, the head of the parliamentary banking committee said on Friday.
But legislators introduced a 10 euro per ton excise on diesel fuel, starting next month, Valeriy Alyoshin told Reuters.
Parliament introduced temporary cuts in import duties on oil and oil products in March this year to avoid shortages during the spring sowing campaign but planned to raise duties from October 1 to compensate for lost revenues.
“The sense of the offer agreed between the government and the committee is that from October 1 we will introduce a 10 euro per ton excise on diesel and the excise on petrol will remain unchanged at 40 euros per ton,” Alyoshin said.
The plan was to raise import duties to 60 euros per ton from 40 euros on petrol and introduce an excise of 30 euros per ton on diesel but the government urged deputies to delay the hike to support stability of the domestic oil products market.
Alyoshin also said the parliament scrapped an additional duty of 10 euro per ton on oil paid to the Pension Fund and extended a tax break for oil imports for all of 2001.
Economy Minister Vasyl Rohovy has said the extension of tax breaks on oil and oil products imports would reduce the impact of higher world oil prices on the domestic market in the ex-Soviet state, which heavily depends on energy imports.
Petrol and diesel prices have already risen by around 30 percent in Ukraine since the start of September.
