Tax Ministry Forecasts no Leaping Fluctuations in Prices on Oil Products

There will be no leaping fluctuations in prices on oil products in 2003, head of the tax policy department of the Russian Tax Ministry Tatyana Karaseva announced at a press conference today. She refused to give exact figures on the expected rise, explaining it was expectations that provoked a rise in prices.

Karaseva reported that a rise in prices on oil products in 2001 and 2002 had been observed without any changes in the law on excises. An increase in retail prices for gasoline was 25 percent on average since the beginning of 2002. Tax Ministry's experts linked it to competition between large oil companies and independent market participants.