MINSK, 19 October (BelTA) – Belarus has no problems with payment for Russian gas, Chairman of the Board of Belarus' National Bank Pavel Kallaur told media on 19 October, BelTA has learned.

“To rule out ambiguousness I would like to stress that we have no problems with paying for Russian gas,” Pavel Kallaur noted.

He found it difficult to answer, however, whether Belarus made the payment. “The deadline is 20 October,” the head of the central bank said.

As BelTA earlier reported, Russia and Belarus agreed on the ways to settle the oil and gas dispute. According to the agreements, the price mechanism for natural gas for Belarus will remain unchanged in 2016. Belarus confirmed its readiness to transfer the funds accumulated from the start of the year to the Russian gas suppliers. Russia, for its part, agreed to apply a mechanism of inter-budget transfers. Belarus will use these funds, first of all, to reduce gas price for Belarusian consumers.

The inter-budget transfers will help secure gradual leveling of the gas price for Belarusian and Russian consumers in order to create equal conditions in what concerns the gas price for energy producers by 1 July 2019 and for all other gas consumers by 1 January 2025.