Oil company Yukos reportedly making plans to pay $3.4-billion tax bill

Russian oil company Yukos is reportedly trying to gather enough money to pay its crushing $3.4-billion US bill for back taxes, but it was unclear how the company operating under restraints against selling assets plans to do it.

Yukos officials previously have said they have only about $1.4 billion in cash on hand to pay the claim for taxes in 2000. The deadline for that payment passed last week. But Yukos lawyer Dmitry Gololobov was quoted by the radio station Ekho Moskvy as saying Tuesday that "the executive board met an hour ago and made the decision to fulfill the court decisions and pay its tax debt."


It was not immediately clear how the company could raise the extra money. Yukos spokesman Hugo Erikssen declined comment.


Another spokesman, Alexander Shadrin, was quoted as telling the Interfax news agency that Yukos "will use the proceeds gained from the company's production activities."


In addition to what the government says Yukos owes for 2000, Russia's Tax Service has made a claim for $3.3 billion in taxes for 2001, and Russia's top prosecutor has suggested further claims for 2002 and 2003 are also likely.


Last week, the company reportedly offered to pay $8 billion over a three-year period to cover the unpaid tax bill. Former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky has also offered to turn over his stake in the company to settle the tax claim.


On Monday, Russian news agencies quoted an unnamed Cabinet source as saying the government was considering the Yukos proposal to pay $8 billion over the staggered period, in what seemed to be the first hint that the government might compromise.


Bailiffs, meanwhile, have already begun work to freeze accounts in Yukos' production companies in Siberia, and Gololobov told Ekho Moskvy on Tuesday that a Russian court has arrested a 15 per cent stake that the company holds in Sibneft oil company, Interfax reported.


Yukos officials had earlier hoped to surrender their 35 per cent stake in Sibneft to pay off the tax bill.


In a related matter Tuesday, a court rejected the latest plea to free Platon Lebedev, Khodorkovsky's co-defendant in a fraud trial that has raised doubts about Russia's commitment to economic reform and due process.


Defence lawyers had claimed procedure was violated when Lebedev's detention was prolonged this spring by a court decision made without him or his attorneys present. The Meshchansky district court rejected the appeal.


Lebedev's defence team says he is suffering from a liver ailment, and he has appeared wan and weak in numerous court appearances since his arrest in July 2003.


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