UrBC, Moscow, November 30, 2018. Russia’s independent gas filling stations are now allowed to raise their retail fuel prices by 4% on top of what the filling stations owned by large oil and gas companies charge, RIA Novosti refers to participants of Vice Premier Dmitri Kozak’s recent session as stating.

After a provision to freeze gasoline prices got signed on November 12, Kozak asked the Federal Antimonopoly Service and Russia’s Federal Tax Service to check things with the owners of stand-alone gas stations, with a special focus on stations that charge their customers prices that exceed the agreed amount by more than 4%.

‘The 4% increase limit applies to the average prices charged by the local vertically integrated oil and gas companies and not to the indicative prices charged within the smaller markets,’ President of Russian Fuel Union Evgeny Arkusha explained after a meeting chaired by Kozak. President of the Independent Fuel Union Pavel Bazhenov confirmed this as well.

Now Russia’s leading oil and gas companies joined the fuel price freeze agreement after a meeting chaired by Kozak on October 31. This was done to avoid prohibitive duty payments. To make sure the stand-alone gas stations can still get a reasonable profit margin, the Independent Fuel Union suggested canceling excise duty payments on fuel and making the large O&G businesses sell all of their produce via an exchange.