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Raising export duties on oil products impossible - official

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MOSCOW, February 21 (RIA Novosti) - The Finance Ministry said Tuesday it would be impossible to raise export duties on crude and oil products in a bid to curb domestic fuel price increases. Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov said Russia could not raise export duties on crude due to the obligations it assumed at negotiations on the country's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Shatalov said it would be difficult to curb fuel price hikes given the constantly increasing world prices for crude and oil products.

However, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref had urged oil companies earlier in the month to restrain fuel price increases on the domestic market, saying that prices, which jumped by 10% in the first five weeks of the year, had no economic justification.

Gref said oil companies were trying to emulate on domestic markets the high profits they receive on foreign markets, but that this was not acceptable.

The deputy finance minister said, "The administrative room for maneuver is minimal... The [current] conditions show that the [fuel] prices will continue to grow. We are hoping the growth will be slow."

He said that in a bid to curb price growth, the government had already decided not to index excises for oil products in 2006 and in 2007.

"Maybe in the future, excises will be differentiated, but not in 2007," Shatalov said.

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