Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to develop the idea of taking out bumper profits from mining and chemical companies, but no decision has been taken yet, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when commenting on a respective proposal submitted by Presidential Aide Andrei Belousov to President.
"Indeed, there has been such a letter, it was classified and indeed contained an expert viewpoint," Peskov said. "Indeed, it was signed as ‘Agreed’ by President. President agreed that the issue would be worked out by the government of the Russian Federation, with respective proposals to be set forth," he explained, noting that the table published by media outlets was also among the documents for reference purposes.
According to Peskov, the proposals that the cabinet of ministers will present to Putin, will take into account "the necessity to maintain investment opportunities of those (mining and chemical) companies." "The cabinet is already working at the issue, he added.
So far Putin has no plans to meet representatives of mining and chemical companies, "since President has not given his consent to any decisions," Peskov emphasized. Putin can hold such meetings on the sidelines of various events, including the upcoming the Eastern Economic Forum, he added.
Sources in the industry said that the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade would hold a meeting later in the day to discuss the initiative of taking additional revenues in the sectors not related to oil production - the metals, chemical, petrochemical and mining sectors. Two other sources confirmed that the initiative of taking out around 0.5 trillion rubles ($7.6 bln) worth of extra revenues from companies in those sectors each year for budget is indeed under discussion, TASS reported.
