Case, Russia: Recovery of overpaid payment for negative environmental impact from the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources.

Recovery of overpaid payment for negative environmental impact from the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources.

The client paid several million rubles as an advance payment for negative environmental impact (NEI). According to the Client's Company's declaration, the payment for negative impact was significantly lower due to changes in the coefficients involved in the EIA calculation. The Client applied to the Department of Rosprirodnadzor with a request to offset the excessive payment (over 4mln RUB) against payments for future reporting periods. The Department unreasonably refused the Client without denying the fact of overpayment.

When out-of-court methods of defence of the violated rights were exhausted, the Client appealed to the court.

In the court of appellate instance, and then in the court of cassation instance it was possible to prove that the calculation of time limits in the situation of refund of overpayments for NEI payments starts from the date of submission of the relevant declaration for the reporting period, and not from the date of payment of quarterly advance payments. 

The court ruled to recover unjust enrichment in the form of overpaid environmental impact fees from Rosprirodnadzor. 

This court dispute has an impact on the court practice of in the North-Western judicial district, which will help companies to have more certainty in the rules of calculating environmental impact payments.

Certainty in the rules of calculating time limits when applying for the return of overpayments for EIA payments.