KazMunayGas loses trial against Romania’s OMV Petrom in biodiesel import tax dodging

KazMunayGas Trading, part of the Rompetrol Group, which owns Romania’s oil and gas company Rompetrol, recently lost a trial against oil and gas competitor OMV Petrom at the London Curt of Justice, according to Mediafax. KazMunayGas Trading will have to pay the full USD 70 million in antidumping tax to the Romanian Tax Authorities after an investigation into biodiesel import from Canada, which turned out to be from the US. OMV Petrom had bought some of the biodiesel from KazMunayGas, so it was included in the tax authorities’ investigation on dodging due taxes. The London Court decided KazMunayGas should pay some USD 900,000 on account of OMV Petrom in this investigation. This is the second such trial lost by the Kazakh company, after the one with Bioromoil, which also appealed the fiscal authorities’ decision, saying they were good faith buyers. The company, which had a biodiesel factory with EU funds nears Braila, went insolvent in 2012, after the tax authorities decided it should pay some EUR 25 million in taxes. KazMunayGas too went to court against the Canadian company which delivered the biogas and which should have paid all taxes on it. The Kazakhs said they were good faith buyers, and all the paper work mentioned Canada as source of the biogas. editor@romania-insider.com