Kazakhstan Not to Raise Excise Duties on Oil Products

Kazakhstan is not considering any raise in excise duties on oil products, Economic Development and Trade Minister Zhanat Aitzhanova said April 11, 2011.

"The issue on raising excise duty has been put on hold," she said during the second round of negotiations on creation of Free Trade Agreement between the Customs Union and the European Free Trade Association.

"The Ministry of Oil and Gas guarantees that it can regulate domestic prices for oil products without resorting to that measure," she told a press briefing.

In February, Aitzhanova said the government was mulling an increase in the excise duties on oil products to level them up with Russia, noting that Russia's excise duties on oil products were 20 percent higher than that of Kazakhstan.

In January, Kazakhstan's State Agency for Protection of Competition (CPA) proposed to increase excise duty on gasoline.

CPA Chairman Mazhit Yesenbayev said retail prices for petroleum products have gone up 15 percent since the beginning of this year as part of the effort to align prices with Russia, but the tax burden stayed intact.