SOCAR comments on reason for reducing excise rate on gasoline

By Trend

Exemption from taxes associated with the import of AI-92 gasoline is a regular measure, this is usually due to the temporary suspension of the operation of the SOCAR refinery named after Heydar Aliyev, deputy head of the public relations and events department at SOCAR Ibrahim Ahmadov told Trend.

"This is the only refinery in the entire South Caucasus and, accordingly, provides the country's demand for refined products, including gasoline and diesel. While diesel production is possible despite regular maintenance work, gasoline production becomes impossible during this period, due to the shutdown of the respective plants that are responsible for the production of gasoline. And preliminary, of course, the company stocks up certain volumes of gasoline in order to cover the country's demand for fuel for the period when the plant will not work, when its installations will be suspended. But sometimes still need to import some AI-92 gasoline, which is usually produced in the country. This need may arise for a short period, maybe several weeks, but usually, these works do not last more than a month. The new units will be responsible for the production of diesel according to the Euro-5 standard. Last year, we postponed our regular maintenance work because of this and the plant worked without interruption last year to combine this year with the start-up of new installations", - he said.

Ahmadov noted that the government usually creates a time window for SOCAR of several months so that the company, as events develop, the level of demand for gasoline in the country develops and existing reserves are depleted, can decide when and in what volume it will be necessary to import additional gasoline from abroad.

"This is a temporary measure. As a rule, work lasts around one month. When the work is completed and the plant is launched again, the production of AI-92 gasoline will resume and there will be no need to import it," the SOCAR representative concluded.

It should be noted that the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan has made changes to the "Excise duty rates for excisable goods imported into the territory of Azerbaijan."

According to the document signed by Prime Minister Ali Asadov, the excise rate on motor gasoline with an octane rating of less than 95 and a lead content of not more than 0.013 g/l, except for aviation gasoline imported to Azerbaijan, has been reduced from 200 to 1 manat per ton.