As of April 1, the duty on light petroleum products will drop to $86.4 per metric ton from the current $90 per ton and on heavy petroleum products to $46.5 per metric ton from $48.5 per ton.
Last year, the government abandoned its previously accepted bimonthly adjustments of export duties based on the price of the Urals blend on global oil markets and from December 1 switched to setting duties for oil and oil products on a monthly basis to respond more swiftly to changes in world oil prices.
The global financial crisis has forced Russia, which receives a large part of its revenues from oil exports, to gradually devalue the ruble amid capital flight and a fall in global oil prices, which declined from their peak of $147 per barrel in July 2008 to around $40 per barrel, rising in recent weeks to $50.
