Yukos Ordered to Pay for Missed Deadline

Russian oil giant Yukos, struggling with an enormous back-taxes bill, must pay 6.7 billion rubles ($223 million) for missing a payment deadline, a court ruled Wednesday.

Yukos already owes 99.4 billion rubles ($3.4 billion) in back taxes for 2000 that it warns it cannot pay, and the total claims against it for the period 2000 to 2003 are expected to swell to some $10 billion.

Russian law allows government bailiffs to levy fines of 7 percent of the amount they are collecting if payment is not made within the prescribed time.

Bailiffs had initially tried to assess the fee on July 9 after Yukos missed a deadline for payment of the 2000 bill. But a court blocked the move earlier this month, after Yukos' lawyers argued the bill was so enormous that it could not be paid within the period.

The government appealed, and Wednesday's ruling means Yukos will have to pay up.

The web of legal actions against Yukos and its jailed former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky are widely seen as Kremlin-approved punishment for the oil mogul's growing political activity in opposition to President Vladimir Putin's government.

Bailiffs have frozen company bank accounts and are currently evaluating Yukos' largest subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz for possible sale.

HERE