Belarus to have budget shortfall of $0.5 bln in H1 due to sanctions - Finance Ministry
MINSK. June 27 (Interfax) - Belarus will have a national budget shortfall of around $0.5 billion in the first half of the year due to a reduction in proceeds from export duties on sanctioned oil products and potassium fertilizers, Belarusian Finance Minister Yury Seliverstov said.
"From 1 billion to 1.2 billion Belarusian rubles [$400-$480 million at the current exchange rate] of the planned volume for H1 will not come into the state budget. This is connected to a reduction in proceeds from duties on potassium fertilizer, oil, and oil products first of all. Those are the main reasons here," Seliverstov was quoted as saying by the Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA.
Budget revenue in H1 will amount to 43%-44% of the annual plan as a result, he said.
The revenues of local budgets exceed plans, Seliverstov said. "The additional volume of proceeds is around 400 million rubles [$160 million] compared to the same period of last year. And, in principle, we're currently moving fairly confidently taking into account the existing proceeds of local budgets and the fact that we have the remainder of the state budget. We're not having any problems with payments," he said.
The European Union and the United States have imposed harsh sanctions on supplies of Belarusian oil, oil products, and potassium fertilizers amid Russia's special military operation in Ukraine supported by Belarus.
The Belarusian parliament approved a budget for 2022 with a deficit of 2.8 billion Belarusian rubles, which is 1.6% of projected GDP, revenue of 28.13 billion Belarusian rubles, and expenditures of 30.94 billion Belarusian rubles.
The Finance Ministry said earlier that it was reconsidering the parameters due to an expected reduction in revenue of 10% amid Western sanctions, including in connection with a fall in proceeds from export duties on oil products and potassium fertilizers.
The national budget had a deficit of 0.2% of GDP in January-April 2022.