Kazakhstan Reimposes Taxes On Oil Exports

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Energy-rich Kazakhstan is restoring oil export tariffs as the government tries to eliminate shortfalls in the national budget.

According to a government decree approved today, a tariff of $20 will be levied on every ton of crude oil that is exported from the Central Asian nation.

Officials say output from oil fields operating under production-sharing agreements - costly projects in which Kazakhstan is pinning hopes for a new oil boom -- are exempt from the duty.

Kazakhstan originally introduced an oil export tariff of $110 per ton in mid-2008.

Those rates were gradually reduced to zero in the following months as the country's economy struggled amid falling global demand for oil.

compiled from agency reports