Yukos pays off majority of tax bill with prospect of another fine

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia's justice ministry said that Yukos has paid three-fourths of its 2000 tax bill but still had billions more in outstanding debts that analysts said would require sales of its assets.

Authorities proded the troubled oil giant further by slapping it with yet another billion-dollar-tax bill in a sign the state meant to push its case to the limit -- possibly splitting Yukos up between state-friendly firms.

Wednesday's news reports quoted the justice ministry as saying Yukos had paid 75 billion rubles (2.57 billion dollars, 2.1 billion euros) of its 99 billion ruble tax bill for 2000.
Total tax claims against Yukos including 2001 -- which include a contested court martial fee -- add up to nearly 5.5 billion dollars.

But that sum looked likely to increase Wednesday after Interfax reported the tax ministry had slapped a 27.8 billion rubble (950 million dollar) tax bill and court martial fee against Yukos and its largest operator Yuganskneftegas for 2002. Courts must still validate the charge.
Authorities had threatened to look further into Yukos's accounts in a campaign that Russia's largest oil producer claims was sparked by its managers' foray into national politics.
Wednesday's bill, if officially confirmed by the company, would mark the first tax probe against Yukos beyond the years 2000 and 2001.

All together, Yukos' outstanding tax charges "clearly allows the court marshals to sell Yukos assets to settle the tax liabilities," the United Financial Group said in a research note.
Yukos shares and bank accounts remain frozen, meaning that it can only pay bills through its existing exports, which are slowly drying up. It has already cut a link to China because it is unable to pay the rail transport fees.

One of the first Yukos assets likely to go up for sale is Yugansk -- the one hit by the new tax bill Wednesday and which accounts for around 62 percent of the parent company's production.

Russian news reports suggest Yugansk has been valued by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein at between 15 and 17 billion dollars -- a fair value according to analysts' valuations -- although the justice ministry repeated Wednesday that it has so far received no official valuation report.
Yugansk's value could plummet should the natural resource ministry decide to pull its production license, a move that would make the field all but worthless and available at a bargain-basement price for one of Yukos' rivals.

With the realignment of Russia's lucrative energy sector carrying heavy political implications, none of the country's oil majors has yet expressed direct interest in Yukos assets.

Group Menatep, the core Yukos shareholder whose founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky is in jail along with associates on other tax evasion and fraud charges, issued a statement Wednesday saying it was trying to resolve the dispute without hurting shareholders' rights.
But it accused the government of introducing "uncertainties" into the negotiations process.
"They (government officials) continue to make provocative statements by stating that the majority shareholders intended to bankrupt the company," Menatep charged in the statement.

(From Yahoo News)