RI-INVEST was unable to defend property tax claims
The budget of the Tyumen region did not receive significant payments as a result of the unlawful use by the RI-INVEST company, which bought the assets of the bankrupt Antipinsky Oil Refinery, of a preferential property tax rate. The fiscal officials came to this conclusion based on the results of the audit, and the dispute revolved around several hundred objects. The owner of the Tyumen Oil Refinery insisted that the reduced rate was justified – the entire disputed complex was acquired and put into operation after January 1, 2015, and government agency representatives pointed out the difference between “put into operation” and “accepted for accounting.” The first instance has already supported the fiscal authorities, but observers do not rule out new rounds of proceedings. In the meantime, RI-INVEST is trying to collect tens of millions of euros from a number of large insurance companies, claims against which, apparently, are related to a large-scale emergency at Tyumen production in 2022. Then a fire at a deep fuel oil processing plant disrupted the site’s economic activities, which, in turn, resulted in litigation worth hundreds of millions with Transneft. However, at the moment, the owner of the Tyumen Refinery was allowed not to pay the state oil transport monopoly.
RI-INVEST LLC was unable to challenge the multimillion-dollar claims of the Federal Tax Service inspection for Tyumen No. 3 regarding property tax.
Let us clarify that RI-INVEST is a metropolitan organization that purchased the main block of property that previously constituted the production complex of JSC Antipinsky Oil Refinery (Antipinsky Oil Refinery; Tyumen). The latter was part of the “New Stream” group Dmitry Mazurovwas declared bankrupt in 2019, and the ANPZ register included claims for hundreds of billions of rubles. In turn, the beneficiary of the business, Mazurov, was sentenced to 10 years in prison at the end of last year; he was found guilty of fraud on an especially large scale, embezzlement and causing grievous bodily harm.
Let us recall that earlier structures close to the Azerbaijani state-owned company SOCAR showed interest in business. However, subsequently the property of the Atyrau Refinery for 110 billion was transferred to Rusinvest, the only participant of which was listed as Anatoly Yablonsky. According to Kontur.Focus, the shares were pledged to structures close to Sberbank, the industrial giant’s main creditor. Then “Rusinvest” was renamed “RI-INVEST”, and the production facilities began to be operated under the name “Tyumen Oil Refinery”. Now RI-INVEST continues to buy up the property of a bankrupt Tyumen enterprise at a billion-dollar discount.
In the case of the Federal Tax Service, as follows from the documents, the claims of the capital organization were made based on the results of an analysis of the property tax declaration for the 12 months of 2022. The fiscal authorities came to the conclusion of a violation, and by decision of the inspection, RI-INVEST was held accountable in the form of a fine of 2.99 million. In addition, the company was presented with arrears in property taxes in the amount of 119.8 million rubles.
The industrial giant’s dispute with the fiscal authorities revolved around the application of a preferential rate. Thus, in the Tyumen region, for organizations engaged in oil refining with a design capacity of at least 3 million tons per year, the authorities provided a reduced property tax rate of 1.5% for facilities commissioned after January 1, 2015 year.
RI-INVEST successfully took advantage of this measure, but the auditors pointed out that there is a difference between the concepts of “commissioning” and “acceptance for accounting.”
Thus, representatives of the inspection emphasized that a number of facilities were operated by the previous owner – the Atyrau Oil Refinery – which means that the preferential rate for 429 items was applied unlawfully. They were put into operation until 2015, which was confirmed by the court’s decision.
In turn, another major financial conflict involving RI-INVEST is developing in parallel. As Pravda UrFO reported, the owner of the Tyumen Oil Refinery filed a claim of more than a hundred million euros against a number of insurers, including PJSC Ingosstrakh, LLC IC Sberbank Insurance and JSC VSK.
The essence of the claims in the dispute has not yet been disclosed, but recently SOGAZ JSC and Transneft PJSC were involved in the proceedings. “Due to the existence of a reinsurance agreement (SOGAZ) and a dispute regarding a penalty for non-transfer of oil to the Transneft system due to an accident,” the documents stated. It should be noted that Pravda UrFO examined in detail the conflict between Transneft and RI-INVEST for more than half a billion.
As the publication reported, back in 2021, an agreement was concluded between the parties for the provision of services for the transportation of petroleum products for the next year. However, in fact, RI-INVEST deposited significantly less into the system than was initially discussed, which led to the dispute.
In the proceedings, however, representatives of the industrial site referred to an emergency – a fire that occurred at a deep fuel oil processing plant in 2022, after which the enterprise did not immediately restore production volumes, and the court considered it sufficient grounds to deny Transneft’s financial claims. Now the state monopoly is trying to challenge this decision in an appeal.
