Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed the relevant decree on August 30th, which was announced on the official legal acts portal website on Thursday evening.
The duty rate will be in effect from September 1, 2023, until December 31, 2024.
According to the document, the duty will be 7%, with specific minimums of 1,100 rubles ($11.47) per metric ton for nitrogen fertilizers, 2,100 rubles ($21.9) per metric ton for phosphate fertilizers, and 1,800 rubles ($18.77) per metric ton for potash fertilizers.
The initial draft of the decree, prepared by the Ministry of Finance and published in early August, proposed an 8% export duty on fertilizers. However, sources indicated that the rate might be lowered to 7% before the government's final decision.
Phosagro, Russia's largest producer of phosphate-based complex fertilizers, provided comments on the draft decree, suggesting differentiation in export tax rates based on the complexity of fertilizer production and the number of processes involved.
Since the beginning of 2023, fertilizer exports had been duty-free unless the duty value exceeded $450 per ton. Beyond this threshold, the duty rate was set at 23.5% of the difference between the customs value and $450. Initially, this duty was intended as a mechanism to eliminate excess revenue generated under favorable market conditions. However, due to price fluctuations in the first half of the year, the duty revenue amounted to only 6 billion rubles, while the Ministry of Finance had originally planned to raise 119 billion rubles within a year.
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