RusEnergy

28.01.2005 14:01 MSK MosNews - Russian senators have asked the Tax Ministry to check whether the TNK-BP oil company company underpaid 22 billion rubles ($783 million) in taxes in 2000-2003, Reuters reported. They sent a letter to the ministry saying the company used tax evasion schemes similar to those reportedly used by Yukos oil company. Russian TNK became a vehicle of BP when the oil major agreed to buy 50 percent of the Russian company in 2003. Under the deal, back taxes for the periods prior to 2003 should be paid by Russian partners, who still control 50 percent of the firm, Reuters wrote. Senators acknowledged that TNK's tax minimization activities were legal under the legislation then in force. In its suits against the Tax Ministry, Yukos has been arguing that its schemes were also legal, but the company has lost all its legal battles. Analysts quoted by the agency said they did not believe the senators’ initiative would affect TNK-BP. "TNK cannot be checked by the tax authorities for the year 2000 because of the statute of limitations," said brokerage UFG. TNK has already received the results of the tax audit for 2001 amounting to just $87 million and is currently negotiating the amount with tax authorities. "This means that the tax authorities may only perform a tax audit for 2002-2003. We assign a high probability to a tax check being carried out at TNK but the amount of tax claims may be different to that suggested in the senators’ letter and is unlikely to reach the magnitude of those presented to Yukos," UFG was quoted by the agency as saying.