Russia has set the price of gas at 50 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters and the transit price at 0.73 dollar/1,000 cubic meters per 100 kilometers, Sorakhan said.
Beltransgaz has a Gazprom confirmation that in 2000 and 2001 Belarus in fact spent for gas transit between 0.93 and 1.01 dollars/1,000 cubic meters per 100 kilometers.
Belarus undertook a third of the Russian gas-transit pay to third countries when it bought gas at the price of the Russian fifth price belt.
"Now that we have to bear the expenses for the repair and upkeep of the pipe, work of the gas-pumping stations, personnel wages, taxes and pay a commercial price when we buy gas, it is impossible to work at a loss in transporting 33 billion cubic meters to third countries", Sorakhan said.
He added that back in 1993 Belarus concluded contracts in which the gas-purchase price was 50 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters but the transit rate was above 1 dollars/1,000 cubic meters per 100 kilometers.
For instance, in the intergovernmental Russian-Ukrainian agreement the price of gas is 50 dollars, transit rate 1.09 dollars with the possibility of Ukraine's re-export of six billion cubic meters to third countries, Sorakhan said.
