You're reading: Yatsenyuk says Ukrainian delegation to present new gas sector tax policy in Washington

The delegation which will represent Ukraine at the upcoming investment conference in Washington on July 13 will present a new tax policy for the gas sector which has been designed to increase gas production, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said during a meeting at the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry in Kyiv.

“In Washington, we will present new taxes in the energy sector, which will be challenging, and our task is that in ten years Ukraine has to provide itself with its own gas through the increased domestic production and a lower consumption,” Yatsenyuk said.

The prime minister said that by using the new tax policy the government will encourage companies which signed contracts with state gas extracting companies on joint gas production to transfer to signing agreements on joint activity.

“Those who at present have joint agreements [contracts on joint activity in oil and gas production] will pay 70 percent of royalties. This is super-profit – they invested nothing in production. Therefore the government will collect everything from gas oligarchs until they switch to production sharing agreements that transparent, understandable and European,” he said.

Yatsenyuk also said that the government plans to achieve an agreement with private gas companies.

“I propose the following formula: if they give us the guarantee of increasing production, then the state will move to a more progressive and efficient tax system in the energy sector.”