Kazakhstan imposes oil export duty

ALMATY, Kazakhstan

Energy-rich Kazakhstan is restoring oil export tariffs as it seeks to plug shortfalls in the national budget.

Under a government decree approved Tuesday, a tariff of $20 will be levied on every ton of crude oil exported from the Central Asian nation.

The move will irritate Kazakhstan's oil sector, which was badly hit by revamped tax rules in 2009.

Kazakhstan originally introduced an oil export tariff of $110 per ton in mid-2008. Rates were gradually reduced to zero in the following months as the country's economy struggled amid falling global demand for oil.

Officials say output from fields operating under production-sharing agreements -- costly projects on which Kazakhstan is pinning its hopes of a new oil boom -- are exempt from the duty.