PRESS: Ministry to assess fiscal burden of indus sector by May 15

MOSCOW, Mar 6 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Economic Development Ministry will prepare an official assessment of the fiscal burden in various production sectors by May 15 under an order of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday citing correspondence of authorities.

Kozak held a series of meetings devoted to a draft methodology of assessment of the fiscal burden in the industrial sector in February–March. According to Kommersant, the Economic Development Ministry is to submit the final version of methodology to the government by March 15.

In October 2018, Kozak ordered the ministry to develop a methodology for estimating the tax burden “depending on the share of value added in production.” There are no methods yet, there are only “methodical recommendations”, but even this preliminary document caused a dispute, the daily said. Calculations showed that the highest level of fiscal burden in Russia falls on the oil and gas industry, therefore, the mineral extraction tax and value-added tax (VAT) were immediately removed from the proposed formula.

The Energy Ministry also insists on excluding excises and the cost of state monopoly services from the assessment, while the Economic Development Ministry is against.

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