ST. PETERSBURG, June 14 (RIA Novosti) - A senior official in the Kremlin administration said Wednesday he was against additional taxation of Gazprom's profits, but said discussion of the issue benefited the energy giant's management.
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on June 7 that Gazprom could bring in unplanned revenues of up to 400 billion rubles (about $15 billion) in 2006 and proposed taxing the company's superprofits.
But Arkady Dvorkovich, the head of the expert department under the Kremlin administration, poured cold water on the idea. "We understand Gazprom's long-term program, their plans and the funds that Gazprom really does need to implement this program," he said.
Another Kremlin source said two days after Kudrin's comments that the government had refused to support the finance minister's initiative. The source said Gazprom was a state-owned company and it would be pointless to tax its profits only to return the funds later.
