Duma approves bill on investment promotion, protection 1st read

MOSCOW, Dec 10 (PRIME) -- Russia’s State Duma, the parliament’s lower house, on Tuesday approved a bill on investment promotion and protection in the first out of three required readings, as well as the changes to the Tax and Budget codes on condition that the bill will be adjusted later.

The bill foresees two regimes for protection of investment. Social projects above 250 million rubles, agriculture, industry, and digital projects above 1.5 billion rubles, and in other sectors above 5 billion rubles will fall under the first regime that implies a 3-year moratorium on changes in the corporate profit, property, and land taxes, and in the regulatory conditions.

The second regime, for projects with investment above 10 billion rubles, implies individual conditions, like fixation of export customs duties, natural monopolies tariffs, some non-tax payments, and value-added tax reimbursement.

If conditions of the agreement are violated leading to losses for the investor, the government will reimburse thems after the project is implemented and total investment has been invested.

To become law, the bill must be approved by the State Duma in two more readings and by the Federation Council, the parliament’s upper chamber, in one reading before being signed by the president.

Previously, Deputy Finance Minister Andrei Ivanov said that the bill’s goal is to attract at least 30 trillion rubles of investment, and that the Finance and Economic Development ministries will have the goal of signing 100–150 agreements under the bill per year with investment totaling 7–10 trillion rubles.

(63.7244 rubles – U.S. $1)

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