UPDATE: Russia plans no administrative cash transaction limits

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MOSCOW, Jan 23 (PRIME) -- The Russian government is not discussing any administrative restrictions of cash transactions as it would be pointless, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told reporters on Monday.

“We think that it is pointless to restrict cash payments in an administrative way, as all transactions that may be implemented by banks, and new technologies of this implementation should naturally enter the life of every family. But there will be no administrative restrictions and administrative coercion,” he said.

There is a trend for contraction of cash payments in Russia, but this is a special case. “This is a special story for our country. And there are concerns about turnover of cash notes and any restrictions here, so we are not discussing any administrative restrictions and we will not introduce them,” he said.

On January 21, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the ministry suggested restarting consideration of limiting cash transactions gradually to boost tax collection and make the economy more transparent.

Earlier on Monday, a representative of international payment system Visa told PRIME the company supports proposal of Siluanov to return to discussion of capping limits on cash transactions.

“We support efforts of state authorities and the regulator in stimulating a switch to non-cash payments and we are in close cooperation in this direction with our partners in Russia through the introduction of comfortable and safe forms of electronic payments,” Visa’s representative said.

A gradual substitution of cash in settlements will be good for development of the Russian economy. According to a research made for Visa by Moody’s Analytics, higher use of electronic payments via debit, credit and prepaid cards resulted in a U.S. $25.93 billion increase of Russia’s gross domestic product in 2011–2015, the person said.

Russia’s central bank and the Finance Ministry discussed cash payment restrictions in 2012 and submitted a bill to the State Duma, the parliament’s lower house, but it was turned down because of a beginning recession, weakening of the ruble and a lower purchasing power of households.

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