The First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko required of Gazprom to make afterpayment for gas transit till 13:00 on June, 24th and promised that otherwise Minsk would proportionally limit gas delivery to Europe. Gazprom has earlier transferred payment of a debt for transit of 228 million dollars on Beltransgaz account, however Belarus insists on payment of 260 million dollars.
In the meantime the official representative of the Russian gas monopolist Sergey Kupriyanov named the requests of the Belarusian party unreasonable. He said, that according to the terms of the contract, Minsk had no right to raise the rate of gas transit from 1.45 on 1.74 dollars for piping of a thousand cubic metre on hundred kilometres, «Interfax» informs.
As the Press Secretary of the Russian holding explained, the question of rate increase to 1.74 dollars in 2009 and to 1.88 dollars in 2010 is really stipulated in the contract, however for this purpose Belarus should impose a wholesale extra charge on gas in the local market at a rate of 10.47 dollars per thousand cubic metre this year and 11.08 dollars next year. However Beltransgaz hasn’t done this.
