There are calls for return to mandatory sale of FX revenue, but MinFin is opposed - Moiseyev

MOSCOW. April 10 (Interfax) - Calls to reconsider last year's decision to zero out the norm of compulsory sale of FX proceeds by exporters are being heard periodically, but the Russian Finance Ministry opposes this, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said at a meeting of the joint working group on preparation for consideration of the Central Bank of Russia annual report for 2022 in the State Duma.

He pointed to the conditions under which this decision was made last summer.

"Russian export companies faced very serious problems related to the repatriation of foreign exchange receipts. It was decided that the repatriation of foreign exchange was not required and, accordingly, punishment is not applicable to them. Otherwise the situation emerged where we ourselves were punishing our own exporters who were looking for ways to return foreign exchange earnings in other ways: through various kinds of offsets, by supplying various kinds of goods, and so on, and it turned out that people there were struggling with a hostile situation abroad, with the defiance of banks, the refusal of banks to carry out orders to transfer money to Russia; and we were also fining them here. So, since the summer of last year, the [government] commission decided that the repatriation of foreign exchange receipts was not required. So the norm on the mandatory sale of foreign exchange earnings, which was introduced by the 79th decree [of the president], was abolished, and the 529th decree of August last year made it possible to regulate this norm as well. It was due to the fact that the exchange rate in the middle of last year was very strong, supported artificially due to this norm, among other things, which affected the competitiveness of a number of sectors," Moiseyev said. He gave as an example gold mining, where small enterprises found themselves on the brink of collapse.

Moiseyev said there were now "various points of view" regarding this matter.

"A return to the mandatory sale of foreign exchange receipts is raised every so often, but so far no decisions have been made, and our position is firm: my position and the minister's position is that there is no need to review this approach now," Moiseyev said.