Russian Ministry of Finance confirmed that the government was not considering the possibility of increasing the mineral extraction tax (MET) on coal in 2023.
Earlier it was supposed to increase MET for Q4 2023 instead of introducing export duties in case of strong financial performance of coal exporters in January-March 2023.
However, the authorities have repeatedly increased the tax burden on companies in the mining and metallurgical industry over the past few years.
In Q1 2023 coal companies were charged an elevated MET, and from the beginning of 2022 the MET rate on coking coal, which had been previously fixed at 57 RUR/t (0.6 USD/t), was set at 1.5% of the average price of coal in accordance with the TSI FOB Australia Premium Coking Coal Index of the Singapore Exchange.
The idea to introduce export duties on coal, including thermal coal, if its price exceeds 150 USD/t at the port of shipment was also under consideration.
Tax revenues from the Russian coal industry doubled to 4.1 billion USD in 2022. The treasury collected another 0.2 billion USD by increasing the MET for coal producers from January 01 to March 31, 2023.
The MET for anthracite, coking and thermal coal surged up to 4.4 USD/t, which should have attracted additional 0.3 billion USD to the budget.
Source: CAA
