"Lukoil must contribute funds to the Energy Security Fund - the job of the Bulgarian authorities is to oblige the refinery. The income from the Fund must go to contribute to the green transition in Bulgaria. The country must find an owner or manager of the refinery in Bulgaria who will comply with Bulgarian legislation", said Ruslan Stefanov, chief economist at the Center for the Study of Democracy, in an interview with BGNES.
We are talking with the economist about the 25 million less funds contributed for December 2023 by the Lukoil refinery to the Energy Security Fund, which should have gone to compensate citizens - 45 million instead of the amount calculated under the Law on Compensation of consumer costs for transport BGN 70 million
"Lukoil" is obliged to contribute the funds to the Energy Security Fund, another issue is that this is subject to verification by the tax authorities and the court in case there is a discrepancy between what the tax authorities have determined and what the company pays ", explained the chief economist.
He recalled why there should be such a payment by "Lukoil" and what the overall policy was regarding the refinery: "After Russia invaded Ukraine, the EU began a comprehensive policy of rethinking its economic security. As early as July 2022, Germany and Italy took steps to separate Russian ownership in these gas oil markets to their respective countries, and Russian investors were pulled out of them because Russia had abused the use of market participants for geopolitical and military purposes. This was seen in Italy and Germany, and Bulgaria remained the only country that had a refinery, but instead of looking for the reduction of a Russian company in Bulgaria, it even allowed a derogation - it allowed Lukoil to earn as it had earned before," stressed Ruslan Stefanov.
2022 was extremely profitable for all energy companies, in particular for "Lukoil-Bulgaria", the expert believes. which Russia can sell - 60 dollars per barrel, and the goal was to prevent the financing of the war in Ukraine by Russia. It was expected that Bulgaria would also have such a policy. However, the resources to the Kremlin come from two directions - the export fee and the export tax, which Russia collects. That is, the moment a molecule of oil comes out of Russia, it is income for the Kremlin. The second is the local profit that is generated in the refinery, or what assets Lukoil has in Bulgaria. From this point of view point Bulgaria practically continued the flow of financing in both directions - one is the direct profit from these export taxes, with which Bulgaria became a donor to the war in Ukraine, and apart from that it was proven that due to neglecting the derogation "Lukoil" can import above the ceiling of 60 dollars per barrel," said Ruslan Stefanov.
The expert recalled that the parliament in 2023 finally decided to limit these profits. "The National Assembly began to think about compensation - either for Bulgarian consumers to receive a price reduction, which from the market point of view is not possible, or to introduce a special tax that would come from Lukoil. And since we are part of the coalition, which imposes sanctions against Russia and we have accepted that there should be a ceiling at which to sell Russian oil - 60 dollars per barrel, then we believe that "Lukoil" owes Bulgaria the difference between this 60 dollars per barrel and these, which the refinery imported into Bulgaria. According to the calculations, it turned out that for 2023, Lukoil should import 700 million. The finance minister made different calculations, the amount was gradually reduced to 400 million. Now we see that as a result of all the changes - change of governments and difficulty in implementing the legislation, we are currently asking for some 70 million for December 2023, and Lukoil has decided that it owes 45 million. From here, it is finally the turn of the Bulgarian legislation to prove that the funds must be paid", said the chief economist.
According to Ruslan Stefanov, the big problem is another one - that over the years, "Lukoil" has always used transfer pricing, and with it, no profit was left in the Bulgarian refinery or in Bulgaria. "The tendency of the Bulgarian authorities not being able to work out the mechanisms to make this company comply with the Bulgarian legislation is continuing", according to the chief economist at the Center for the Study of Democracy. /BGNES