UrBC, Moscow, August 28, 2018. The Russian Government decided to go through with a gasoline and diesel fuel price increase (+RUR 3,700 and + RUR 2,700 per 1,000 liters, respectively) starting January 1, 2019, Interfax refers to Vice Premier Dmitri Kozak as stating.

‘The decision has been made. The excise duty payments will go back to the amounts originally proposed for July 1, 2018,’ Kozak is quoted as saying.

The government official insists the increase in excise duty payments will not result in a drastic increase in gas prices.

‘No prices are expected to soar. In any case, our plan is to implement all the mechanisms available to the government to make sure this doesn’t happen,’ Kozak says.

Now the excise duty payments were supposed to have gone up on July 1, 2018 (up to RUR 700 per 1,000 liters). However, the government had to back out of this plan in late May and focus on the emergency of unstable oil/mineral stuffs prices. For one, it was decided to take RUR 3,000 and RUR 2,000 off the current gasoline and diesel fuel prices per 1,000 liter, respectively, on June 1. The oil and gas companies promised to keep their retail prices at the existing level in return as well as to increase their home market supply.

Stock gasoline prices rose by 5% on August 13-18, however.