OREANDA-NEWS  The Russian Federation has been introducing combined export duties on certain types of fertilizers since September 1. The corresponding decree was signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on August 30, it was published on the official portal of legal acts on Thursday evening.

The term of the duties is until December 31, 2024. The ad valorem rate will be 7% of the customs value, the specific (that is, the minimum duty rate per ton in rubles) varies depending on the type of fertilizer - nitrogen, potash, phosphorus/complex - and amounts to 1100, 1800 and 2100 rubles/t, respectively.

Water-soluble phosphorus-containing fertilizers with high cost - diammonium hydrogen phosphate and ammonium hydrogen phosphate - have been removed from the duty. As an Interfax source in the agrochemical industry explained earlier, the largest producer of such fertilizers, Almaz Fertilizers, applied to the Ministry of Industry and Trade with a similar proposal.

The first edition of the draft resolution prepared by the Ministry of Finance and published in early August provided for the introduction of an export duty for fertilizers in the amount of 8%. But on the eve of the final decision of the government, Interfax sources reported that the rate could be 7%.

PhosAgro, Russia's largest producer of complex phosphorus-containing fertilizers, once addressed comments to the draft resolution, offering to differentiate the export duty rate depending on the complexity and number of conversions of fertilizer production.

From the beginning of 2023 until now, zero duty has been applied to the export of fertilizers, if the customs value of 1 ton does not exceed the equivalent of $450. If this level was exceeded, a rate of 23.5% of the difference between the customs value and $450 was applied. Initially, this duty was positioned as a mechanism for withdrawing excess profits arising from favorable market conditions. However, against the background of changes in the price environment for the first half of the year, revenue from the duty amounted to only about 6 billion rubles, whereas initially the Ministry of Finance expected to collect 119 billion rubles for the year.