Image credit: ALROSA
(TASS) - The Ministry of Finance does not yet see the prerequisites for purchasing diamonds from ALROSA by Gokhran as a measure to support the company and will monitor the situation, Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev, who oversees the industry, told reporters.
“While the market is very good, we do not see any prerequisites at this stage, but we will continue monitoring, because it is not clear if this is a market uptick or just the result of some kind of deferred demand, after which the market will go down again, or this is a new order. Meanwhile, we will keep an eye on this and I think we will report to the president towards the end of the quarter. So far, of course, we see that the results [of the company] are good," he said.
The head of Yakutia, Aisen Nikolaev said late last year that Yakutia’s budget may fail to receive 10 to 20 billion rubles by the end of 2020 due to a decrease in ALROSA’s sales caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Nikolayev, ALROSA needs support amid the recession in the global diamond market and the difficult situation in the global economy due to the pandemic. The possibility of selling diamonds to Gokhran is being discussed in terms of the numbers announced back in 2019, that is, in the amount of $ 0.5-1 billion, Nikolayev told TASS.
Meanwhile, the government increased payments for the purchase of precious stones and precious metals by Gokhran to 39.82 billion rubles in 2021 as it follows from the explanatory note to the draft federal budget for 2021-2023. In 2020, the limit for such purchases was 10.5 billion rubles.
The head of the company, Sergey Ivanov said last November that ALROSA could take advantage of the opportunity to sell diamonds to Gokhran in 2021 if the market situation deteriorates.
