Russian government is increasing export customs duties on crude oil and oil products

Russia's government is increasing export customs duties on crude oil and oil products, exported from the territory of Russia and out of the countries participating in the Customs Union agreements up to 29.8 dollars per ton, said Vice Premier Alexey Kudrin's press secretary Gennady Yezhov.

Earlier the duty totaled 26.2 dollars per ton.

Till the end of this year this increase "will give an additional 30-35 million dollars to the federal budget", Yezhov told at a press conference following the meeting of the governmental committee on protective measures in foreign trade and customs and tariff policy.

Export customs duties on crude oil and oil products are established according to the world oil prices, the Vice-Premier's press secretary explained.

Two months' monitoring showed that the average "Urals" oil price in September-October 2002 totaled 26.49 dollars per barrel or 193.36 dollars per ton.

Proceeding from the results of the monitoring the governmental committee decided to increase the export customs duty up to 29.8 US dollars.

The government's decision will be issued as a resolution, which will come into force on December 1, 2002.