"With colleagues from other ministries, we reached a common
position that as of today it's inappropriate," he told reporters
on the sidelines of a military forum outside Moscow, adding that
companies' debts had to be taken into considerations.
Earlier in August, Kremlin aide Andrei Belousov proposed to
President Vladimir Putin to raise 500 billion roubles ($7.5
billion) a year from metal and mining companies.
The proposal listed Evraz, NLMK, Nornickel, Severstal, MMK,
Mechel, Alrosa, Polyus, Phosagro and Acron as among the targeted
companies.
The shares of these companies were mixed on Wednesday. Mechel
stock was up 5.3 percent on the Moscow exchange after it
reported second quarter results.
Russia needs extra budget revenue to meet the economic goals set
out by Putin after he began a new six-year term in May. The
government has already announced plans to raise value added tax
from 2019 and increase the retirement age.
(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Polina Nikolskaya;
Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter)
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