Support for steel industry should be individually based, there will be no reduction in tax burden for entire industry - Russian deputy finance minister

ST. PETERSBURG. March 19 (Interfax) - Support for ferrous metallurgy companies should be targeted in nature and cannot be associated with a reduction in the tax burden for the entire industry, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Sazanov told journalists.

"If some metallurgical companies have serious problems, up to closures and layoffs of people, then of course, they can apply to the subcommittee that operates under the Finance Ministry [the subcommittee on providing financial state support measures to individual organizations in sectors of the Russian economy, which is part of the government commission on increasing the sustainability of the Russian economy under sanctions], and accordingly, there, the specific problems of specific companies will be considered if such requests are received. This will not be associated with a reduction in the tax burden for the entire industry," Sazanov said when answering a question about possible real measures to support the ferrous metallurgy industry.

He recalled that the subcommittee also considers applications from companies in the coal industry. "Support measures were provided to individual companies in the form of deferments, installment plans for tax payments, assistance with the restructuring of bank loans and so on," he said.

Sazanov said that he does not see the need to adjust the formula for calculating the excise tax, since the budget is adopted for a three-year period and it also takes into account revenues from the steel industry.

"We cannot give them up [revenues] now. Therefore, we do not support any adjustments to the calculation of the excise tax on steel," he said.

The idea that additional anti-crisis measures to support ferrous metallurgy companies should be discussed on an individual basis, taking into account a detailed analysis of the financial situation for specific projects and their socio-economic significance, was also expressed by First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov in early March at a meeting on the development of ferrous metallurgy, which faced a significant drop in demand for steel amid an economic slowdown.

In the same month, it became known that the Economic Development Ministry and the Industry and Trade Ministry had developed a proposal to adjust the formula for calculating the excise tax on steel and switch to a floating rate in its calculation, which would take into account the costs of raw materials in metal production, labor costs and tariffs indexed to the inflation rate.