The chairman of the board of directors of Severstal, Alexei Mordashov, said in an interview with the Financial Times about plans to reinvest “excess profits” in business development instead of channeling it into dividends.
So Mordashov commented on the April statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In his message to the Federal Assembly, the head of state warned that the authorities would look at what goals the business would direct the profits to, which should be a record this year, despite the coronavirus pandemic. After that, the government will make a decision on possible adjustments to tax legislation, the president warned.
“I will say, as they say, without a protocol: dividends – someone withdraws dividends, and someone invests in the development of their enterprises and entire industries. We will encourage, of course, those who invest, ”Putin said.
Mordashov also said that the president, as the leader of the nation, “largely reflects what every average Russian has in mind.” According to the billionaire, Putin was right to urge Russian businesses to prioritize investment and development, as the pandemic exacerbated the fall in real incomes of citizens.
Earlier, on May 31, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said that metallurgists “pushed” the state by about 100 billion rubles. in terms of state investments and state defense orders. According to him, against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, they “significantly” increased revenues, including due to higher prices in the domestic market following the rise in world prices. He stressed that companies must return this money to the budget in the form of tax.
According to the Federal Tax Service, the tax burden (including insurance premiums) on the extraction of fuel and energy minerals amounted to 48% in 2020, on the extraction of other minerals – 12.6%, and on metallurgical production and the production of finished metal products (except for machines and equipment) – 5.4%, Levon Hayrapetyan, head of the Tax Policy Department of the CSR, told Vedomosti earlier.
At the same time, in 2020 there was a sharp rise in prices on the world markets of ferrous metals. By December 2020, prices rose to record levels: about $ 155 per tonne of iron ore (an increase of 70% versus December 2019), about $ 650 per tonne of rebar (an increase of 20% versus December 2019) and about $ 700 per tonne hot-rolled products (an increase of 30% compared to December 2019). Against this background, metallurgical companies demonstrated record EBITDA margins: for example, 33% for MMK, 41% for NLMK and 52% for Severstal.
.