Court clears Yukos of $223m fine

A Russian court has ruled that oil giant Yukos does not have to pay a 6.7bn rouble ($223m, £122m) fine for its delay in paying its tax bill.

Yukos was fined last month after it failed to meet a deadline to pay 99.4bn roubles ($3.4bn) in back tax, as part of an ongoing battle with the Russian government over the company's tax bill.

The Moscow Court of Arbitration offered the oil giant an apparent reprieve on Tuesday when it struck down the fine, Russian news agencies reported.

Many analysts believe the government's battle with Yukos is politically motivated as the company's former chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky has offered financial support to opposition parties.

This is the second such reprieve for the company as last week, state bailiffs gave Yukos until the end of August to pay its tax bill.


Yukos shares rose 10% to 126.01 roubles($4.32) on Monday following reports that former Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien was acting as a mediator in the dispute.

Yukos was fined on 9 July under a Russian law which allows bailiffs to levy fines of 7% of the total amount owed if payment has not been made by a prescribed date.

According to the ITAR-Tass news agency, Yukos argued that they could not pay such a large sum of money in such a short period of time. The company wanted to pay the money owed over a period of years.

On Friday, bailiffs were reported to have agreed that Yukos could pay the $3.4bn(£1.8bn) bill for unpaid taxes for the year 2000 by the end of August. Yukos would not confirm whether these reports were accurate.

The firm has said it may be forced into bankruptcy if bailiffs attempt to recover the money by selling off the firm's key assets, most of which are frozen.

The company's former chief executive Mr Khodorkovsky has been in jail since October and is standing trial on charges of fraud, forgery and tax evasion.

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