August's average pump prices, reported by 24.kg on Thursday morning from National Statistics Committee data, were 89.11 som a litre for AI-92 against 87.83 in July, 109.27 for AI-95 against 108.69, and 101.69 for diesel against 101.86. The two petrol grades rose 1.46% and 0.53%. Diesel fell 0.17%. Since January AI-92 is up 16.58%, AI-95 up 33.58% and diesel up 25.22%. “The rise in petrol prices continued in August, but no longer as sharply as in July,” 24.kg wrote. At the National Bank's late-August rate of 87.45 som, a litre of AI-92 costs $1.02.
Resolution №579 of 26 August extends the subsidy to importers to 31 December and applies from 1 August. It fixes reference prices of $960 a tonne for AI-92, $1,050 for diesel and $650 for autogas, and it pays the difference between the reference and the importer's actual cost by contract and invoice, transport included, on applications filed by the 25th of the month after delivery, in economist.kg's reading of the text. August's claims are therefore due by 25 September. Around 1 billion som, some $11 million, had gone to traders under the earlier version of the scheme by late August.
The subsidy is an importer's instrument: it settles invoices after the fact and says nothing about the pump.
The reference sits above the Russian exchange. AI-92 on the St Petersburg exchange printed a record 75,477 roubles a tonne on Tuesday, $874 at the central bank's rate and $86 under Bishkek's $960 line; summer diesel printed $825 against a $1,050 reference. Where the delivered contract lands against those lines, with rail freight from Russia added on top, decides whether the state owes anything on August's tonnes at all.
The subsidy is an importer's instrument: it settles invoices after the fact and says nothing about the pump. The uncovered grade tells the year's story. AI-95, which is not among the three products №579 prices, is up a third since January; AI-92, which is, is up a sixth. In August the order reversed and the covered petrol grade rose the most.
From 1 September fuel invoices run through ESF 2.0, the tax service's electronic invoicing, so September's print will be the first month with both the wall and the paper trail in force. The first applications under the extended scheme fall due on 25 September; none has surfaced yet in the sources the desk reads.