Yukos Woes Increase With Collection Order

Russia's Tax Ministry has slapped Yukos with a collection order on part of a back tax claim, raising the total due to $6.1 billion, the embattled company said Tuesday.

Yukos has paid $2 billion out of a $3.4 billion back tax bill for 2000, and tax authorities say it also owes $4.1 billion for 2001.

Yukos confirmed that it received a collection order for $2.7 billion of the 2001 claim. While the order can be challenged, bailiffs may begin enforcing it at once.

The ministry had hiked the 2001 claim by $750 million, but the order, which was dated Sept. 6, marked the first time it had moved to collect any of that money.

The increased bill makes it easier for the government to justify the sale of Yukos's core subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz, a company source said. Bailiffs are preparing the subsidiary for sale against the tax owed, and oil analysts expect the unit, or a part of it, to be bought by a Kremlin-friendly company.

Analysts say the Tax Ministry is eventually expected to present claims totaling over $10 billion for 2000-2003.

The mounting claims are part of a web of legal actions against jailed former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his company - which produces one fifth of Russia's crude oil - that is seen as punishment for the growing clout he demonstrated last year, and his funding of opposition parties.

President Vladimir Putin has portrayed the case as a clampdown on shady business practices that must be resolved through the courts. In an interview Monday with foreign journalists and academics, Putin reiterated that he is not trying to bankrupt Yukos, according to a participant's notes.

Because the Tax Ministry is only going after the core tax amount plus interest for 2001, not penalties and fines accrued, it needs no court decision to begin collecting, a Yukos spokesman said. The ministry has filed to retrieve the remaining $1.4 billion in penalties and fines through courts, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

With the accounts of its subsidiaries and head company frozen, Yukos warned last week of production and wage interruptions. Market watchers, however, say the chances are slim that Putin would allow a production decline in an industry that accounts for most of the country's budget inflows and much of his political clout overseas.

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