MOSCOW, June 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's lower house of the parliament passed in the first reading Wednesday a draft law introducing a zero-rate severance tax for the development of new subsoil deposits.
Under the bill, 10-year tax holidays will be introduced for the holders of production licenses at deposits in East Siberia and the Irkutsk Region and tax holidays of 15 years will be provided under licenses for the research and development of deposits.
The tax holidays may be cancelled if aggregate oil production from new deposits amounts to 25 million tons (183.75 million bbl) per year.
The bill also regulates tax differentiation in accordance with deposit depletion setting lower rates for deposits that are more than 80% depleted.
Kirill Androsov, a deputy economic development and trade minister, said the zero tax rate for new subsoil deposits might help to increase oil production in East Siberia by an extra to 50 million tons (367.5 million bbl) by 2015.
