OREANDA-NEWS. April 29, 2008. The Concern believes that the Service’s claim that it must pay additional 1.7bln RUR for 2004–2005 is groundless.

Over 1.4bln RUR is to be paid for the price imbalance that accrued on the wholesale electricity market (before its reformation some 1.5 years ago) due to a difference in the tariffs set by the Government for producers and consumers. As a result, Rosenergoatom was not paid for part of its shipped production and the above price imbalance was not recorded in its balance sheet.

“In legal and economic terms, price imbalance means impersonal debt of all consumers of the energy market to all of its suppliers,” says the Concern pointing out that only real income can be taxed.
Besides, the Federal Tax Service says that Rosenergoatom must pay 250mln RUR more for “injustified benefits granted to Novovoronezh NPP.” 

Rosenergoatom has appealed against this claim to the International Inspection for Biggest Tax Payers #4 and the Arbitration Court of Moscow.

This is not the first claim of the Federal Tax Service against Rosenergoatom Concern. In late 2005, following an inspection of the Concern’s branch, Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant, the Service obliged Rosenergoatom to pay 3.4bln RUR in water tax for 2002–2003. Rosenergoatom had to pay a total of 5bln RUR (with fines inclusive) but it appealed to court and the latter declared the action to be groundless.

Price imbalance was one of the key problems for all suppliers of the old moderl of wholesale electricity market. Almost half of it belonged to Rosenergoatom even though it produces just 15%-16% of Russia’s electricity: in 2005 the price imbalance of the market totaled 20.210bln RUR with the share of the Concern therein being 10.375bln RUR.