Russian Duma Passes Offshore Tax Law in Second Reading

The Russian Duma has passed a draft bill in the second reading on stimulating offshore hydrocarbon production with tax and customs duty privileges. The bill concerns oil and gas produced on Russia's continental shelf and will be debated in the third reading this autumn, Duma budget and taxes committee chair Andrey Makarov said.

The bill was passed on Wednesday in the second reading and now its text merely needs to be "cleaned up", the MP said. The bill is meant to create a favorable investment climate for developing offshore oil and gas fields. 

Tax breaks and customs privileges are envisioned in the bill for organizations actively developing offshore resources. The bill also goes some way to improve safety zones around artificial islands, platforms and other infrastructure.

The bill changes the tax regime on raw hydrocarbons produced on new offshore fields and frees them of customs duties. With this in mind, parliamentarians established criteria by which a field can be determined to be new.  

The bill offers breaks on VAT, profits taxes, an subsoil development taxes for companies involved in offshore developments.

Source: Samotlor Express , 2013г.