N e w s

Prime minister Mikhail Kasianov signed on August 15th the order to remove custom export duty for silver. This was reported by the Department of Government Information this Monday.

By the order of the Government, the rates of custom duty, approved by the order of Government from December 9, 1999, are no more valid for silver.

The Order comes into force one month after its official publishing.

Earlier , in course of its meeting on July 8, 2002, the Commission on Protection Measures for Domestic Trade and Custom Rate Policy made a discussion to remove export duty for silver, which nowadays sums up to 6,5 %.

As it was commented after the end of the meeting by Genady Ezhov, Press-Secretary of Alexey Kudrin, the Minister of Finance, the reason for removal of export duty is a well-known fact that at the moment the majority of refined silver is being exported duty-free through the neighboring CIS states, mainly through Belarus.

The amount of silver produced in Russia in 2001 came up to 646 tons.