Ministry to replace some payments for state services with taxes

MOSCOW, Apr 3 (PRIME) -- A working group comprising representatives of the Russian government and business associations have agreed to replace payments for state services with tax payments without an increase in rates, Andrei Lavrov, spokesman for Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, told reporters on Wednesday.

“It was decided that the bills will encompass introduction of some new tax payments that will replace different payments for state services,” he said, adding that the transition will not raise the debt burden.

He also said that the working group supported the idea that the transition of non-tax payments to the Tax Code should mean them coming in force no earlier than from January 1, 2021. “This way, the tax payers and the tax authorities should have enough time to adapt to the new conditions. Representatives of businesses supported the initiative,” he said.

The group agreed that some non-tax payments should be regulated by tax legislation, and that corresponding bills should be submitted to the State Duma, the parliament’s lower house, until the end of this spring session, he said.

Previously, the Finance Ministry published a bill that would include six non-tax payments into the Tax Code – a payment for negative impact on the environment, obligatory payments of operators of general purpose communication networks, compensations for the harm that heavyweight trucks inflict on federal highways, as well as the scrappage, ecological, and resort fees.

End