Russia’s Economy Ministry criticized a proposed tax increase on the nation’s main revenue source, crude producers, saying it may hurt output and the budget in the long term. The oil-extraction tax formula proposed by the Finance Ministry last week would hurt “the economics of working deposits and in fact would ’kill’ production at the most efficient fields in terms of tax performance,” Deputy Economy Minister Nikolay Podguzov said in an e-mailed statement. “Clearly, if production decreases, taxes also fall.” Struggling with its first recession in six years, Russia’s budget may gain more than 600 billion rubles ($9.1 billion) of additional revenue next year if the government raises the crude output levy, according to the Finance Ministry. That’s a “significant” overestimation, Podguzov said. While President Vladimir Putin told the government to weigh the tax proposal on Tuesday, there’s no final decision yet, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said. Shares in the […]