Yukos offers government $7.5 billion for tax settlement

Embattled Russian oil firm Yukos has offered $7.5 billion to settle its tax arrears bill on condition it be given three years to pay, Interfax news agency quoted a senior Yukos source as saying on Sunday.
Interfax said the firm's chief executive, Stephen Theede, made the proposal in a letter to the government on Thursday - a day after Yukos missed a deadline to pay $3.4 billion in taxes and charges it owes for 2000.
Yukos has been searching for a settlement with officials after saying demands for nearly $7 billion in back taxes for 2000 and 2001 would drive it into bankruptcy.
Analysts expect this sum to grow to over $10 billion after audits of 2002 and 2003. Interfax said the settlement - around $8 billion in total when including a further $550 million owed to the company in VAT refunds on oil exports - covered the whole period from 2000 to 2003.
Theede proposed paying three payments of $2.5 billion over three years, and offered to hand over as a deposit the firm's 35 percent stake in smaller rival Sibneft, which is worth around $4.7 billion, the report said.
Yukos press secretary Alexander Shadrin said he could confirm a letter had been sent to the government on Thursday, but declined to comment on its contents. The company's woes are widely put down to the Kremlin's displeasure with main shareholder Mikhail Khodorkovsky's political ambitions, and its future largely depends on his striking a deal with officials.
Khodorkovsky is on trial for tax evasion and fraud and faces 10 years in prison if convicted. His trial resumes on Monday.
His lawyer said last week he had offered to give up his 32 percent stake in Yukos in return for the company being given a longer timeframe to pay its back taxes. But his offer appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
Tax officials have a court order demanding immediate payment, and bailiffs can now move in and seize assets for a potential fire sale. The firm says it could have to halt operations if forced to pay straight away.
Yukos produces around a fifth of Russia's crude oil.