DUSHANBE, January 19, 2011, Asia-Plus -- The issue of resumption of duty-free delivery of Russian light oil to Tajikistan is expected to be settled within the next two weeks, Yormahmad Begmahmadov, the head of the oil and gas supply department within the Ministry of Energy and Industries (MoEI), said.

According to him, the Tajik side has already sent all necessary documents requested by the Russian ministry of energy. “According to our data, Tajikistan imports up to 1 million tons of Russian oil products per year, including almost 400,000 tons of gasoline. This year, Tajikistan is expected to receive 379,000 tons of gasoline from Russia,” said Begmahmadov, “All these data have been sent to the Russian Ministry of Energy and we hope to receive reply from them within the next few weeks.”

He noted that Russia and Turkmenistan now provided the bulk of Tajikistan’s fuel imports. “Russia accounts for 92.9 percent of our fuel imports,” Begmahmadov said.

Tajik official added that Russia planned to pass the single resolution on canceling export duty on light oil for Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

We will recall that the issue of resumption of the duty-free delivery of Russian oil products to Tajikistan was among major topics of the 11th meeting of the Tajik-Russian commission for economic cooperation that took place in Moscow on November 9.

On May 1, 2010, Russia introduced the export duty on light oil for Tajikistan at the rate of 203.7 U.S. dollars per one ton and on June 1, the export duty was raised to 209.1 U.S. dollars. Introduction of the export duty on light oil has resulted in gasoline prices rising in Tajikistan in late May.

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan had been receiving Russian fuel duty free since 1995, in keeping with protocols to the government-to-government agreements on the establishment of a free trade zone within the CIS area. However, Russian customs started collecting a duty on oil products exported to Kyrgyzstan on April 1 and to Tajikistan on May 1 last year.