News

TASS News Agency (TASS) quoted Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov as saying on Wednesday that the country will decide whether to impose additional taxes on steel producers this year.

Metal producers in Russia may face additional taxes of 100 billion rubles (US$1.4 billion) to the government.

TASS quoted Belousov as saying that he would only consider changes to the taxation of ferrous metal producers. He also said that he does not expect basic metal producers to be affected.

Belousov stated that “We need to make a decision this year” and said that “there is no task to take away the funds of the metal producers.”

The Russian government has been worried about rising raw material costs in the defense and construction industries, which is also part of a wide-ranging effort to maintain the stability of domestic commodity prices, even if they are rising globally.

Some steel producers, including Evraz and Metalloinvest, already supply railroad tracks and other steel products to national projects at lower prices.

He said he was skeptical of the proposal to buy steel products for national reserves discussed by the Ministry of Industry this week. The range of metal products required for national projects is too wide, and some of them may deteriorate after long-term storage.