MOSCOW - Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft said on Thursday its first-half net income rose about 27% year on year to 773 billion roubles ($8.40 billion) as sales grew, while company chief Igor Sechin called rising taxes "destructive".

Revenue for January though June reached 5.174 trillion roubles, up 33.4% from the year-earlier period.

Rosneft, which accounts for 40% of Russia's total oil output, managed to divert oil sales to India and China away from Europe, which along with the U.S. introduced unprecedented trade sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.

Russia's government has cranked up wide range of taxes, needed to replenish the state coffers, as budget expenditures are expected to increase this year.

"The continuing growth of the tax burden has a negative impact on the oil industry," Sechin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, said in a statement. Sechin has also criticised the central bank for high interest rates.

He said the tax burden for the oil industry had reached 75% over 2019-2023, compared to 27% in the banking sector and 62% in gas production.

"This level of tax burden destroys the very economic model of the industry's functioning and violates the rights of investors, including individual shareholders, the number of which exceeds 1.3 million people in Rosneft," he said.

The company called itself Russia's largest taxpayer, contributing 2.8 trillion roubles in taxes for the first half of the year.

Rosneft also said that its oil and gas condensate output reached 92.8 million metric tons or 3.796 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first half of the year, down from around 4 million bpd reported in the same period in 2023.

The company said it had to abide by Russia's deal with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, aimed at curbing oil production in order to prop up the oil market.

($1 = 91.9955 roubles)

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, editing by Deepa Babington)