Alexander Ignatyuk, analyst of Energocapital IC

– All acting NPPs in Russia are big tax payers for their host regions

Public hearings on the Baltic NPP project will take place in Neman, Kaliningrad region, on July 24 2009.

Budgetary efficiency is one of the most important aspects of the investment appeal of an NPP construction project. All acting nuclear power plants in Russia are big tax payers for their host regions.

Of course, different NPPs have different shares in the budgets of their regions. For example, in Tver region energy revenues make up 30% of the regional budget with as much as 1.7bln RUR paid in taxes by Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant, in Smolensk region (Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant) this index is 28%, in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (Bilibino Nuclear Power Plant) – almost 23%. In the regions having bigger budgets NPPs have smaller shares but are still quite big tax payers: in Jan-Apr 2009 Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant paid 521.5mln RUR in taxes (5% more than in Jan-Apr 2008). Half of this sum was transferred to the budget of Leningrad region and 18% to the local budget.

Thus, Baltic Nuclear Power Plant will become a source of stable and easily predictable budgetary inflows for Kaliningrad region. Each year the region will get some 1.5bln-2bln RUR.

The 1st unit of Baltic NPP is supposed to be launched in 2016.