BISHKEK — A bill to amend the Kyrgyz Tax Code by reducing the rates of excise duty on petroleum products will generate a gas price reduction by 1.7 soms per litre. The bill was submitted yesterday by the Ministry of Economy for public discussion.

The Ministry argues that the reduction of excise duty rates on gasoline from 5 to 3,000 soms is necessary to increase the volume of its legal import. If the retail price of gasoline drops by 1.7 soms, the difference in price between the Kyrgyz and Kazakh gasoline will be no more than 5-6 soms.

“In this case, shady businessmen won’t have much allurement because after transport expenses, and attendant payments and some other costs they will have difference only in 2 soms per litre. Naturally, they won’t take risks because of the low earnings. Only in this case, adopted by the government measures to limit the black market sales of petrol will have an effect. Final consumers will prefer to buy fuel from legal importers”, the document says.

Currently, the difference of small wholesale gasoline prices at gas stations in Almaty and Bishkek is about 12 soms. If this trend continues or the difference increases, the volume of gasoline imports may fall up to 96.4 mln tons, and the state budget income — by 900 mln soms.