Roman Golovchenko: Minsk and Moscow fully agree on list of import-substituting projects

"Minsk and Moscow have fully agreed on lists of import-substituting projects," Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said following talks with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Mishustin. They were held today in Moscow.

A draft agreement on the implementation of the approved plans has already been prepared. Parties expect that the document will pass all internal procedures extremely quickly.

Today the allies signed an agreement on common principles of taxation. They concern VAT and excise taxes. The main goal is to harmonize tax legislation of Belarus and Russia. This is provided by the allied programs of Minsk and Moscow, approved by the heads of state last year. The document signed today completely manages the issue of the Russian tax maneuver in the oil sector for Belarus.

Yuri Seliverstov, Minister of Finance of Belarus:

“This is quite an important agreement, because it equalizes the conditions for the taxation of the entire groups of goods. Some of the taxes we have in Russia were included in the price of oil. Now we will be compensated on a permanent basis so that we had the same cost of the resource. Plus, traceability and unified principles of administration will be implemented by the tax authorities. We will know who takes it to whom and at what cost. This is quite an important document.”

Belarus and Russia are taking coordinated measures to strengthen their economic security, including accelerating the implementation of 28 Union programs. As the Russian Prime Minister noted, more than half of all planned measures have already been implemented.