OREANDA-NEWS. The head of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights (HRC) Valery Fadeev believes that a progressive tax on personal income (PIT) should not be introduced in Russia in the near future. He expressed his opinion on Tuesday during an international conference in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on inequality.

According to him, "the expenditures are very much inconsistent with the incomes officially shown by the richest citizens of Russia to pay tax." “There are few such citizens - approximately 0.3%. These citizens do not pay 500 billion rubles. From a moral point of view, this is shameful, because the poorest pay 13%, and the richest do not even pay 13%," the head of the Human Rights Council said.

“They say it’s functionally very difficult to get these people to pay 13% because they are smart, cunning. These are not criminal schemes, these are schemes that allow you to withdraw money abroad that allow you to evade taxes. He noted that he was opposed to raising taxes, because "the state will not be able to take these taxes from rich people in the near future". “And the goal will be the middle class with low incomes. Today, hitting the middle class is unacceptable”, concluded the head of the Human Rights Council.