Russian watchdog opposes excise duty on sweetened beverages

MOSCOW, Aug 31 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service believes that a decision to introduce an excise duty on sugar-containing beverages will lead to higher food prices, a lower purchasing power and falling budget revenues, Anna Mirochinenko, director of the service’s chemical and agriculture industries control department, told PRIME on Wednesday.

“The Federal Antimonopoly Service believes that expanding the list of excisable goods may result in higher prices for food and put financial and economic indicators of the food industry under pressure because the purchasing power will fall further and, consequently, budget revenues at all levels will decrease,” Mirochinenko said.

Newspaper Vedomosti reported earlier in the day that the Finance Ministry suggested introducing an excise duty of 5 rubles per liter on sweetened beverages. The ministry believes that the measure will bring up to 80 billion rubles to the budget in 2017–2019.

The ministry plans to collect an additional 2.5 trillion rubles in the period to finance budget deficit.

(64.9072 rubles – U.S. $1)

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