OREANDA-NEWS. On October 27, 2006 Uralsvyazinform (RTS: URSI/URSIP) the leading carrier of fixed-line and mobile services in the Urals region, Russia received an official statement from Tax Authority of Russia following the field tax inspection initiated in June this year.

In the opinion of Tax Authority, the company underpaid RUR 567.7 million in taxes for the period of 2003-2004, and is also due RUR 122.1 million in fines and penalties. The claimed arrears are comprised of RUR 448.2 million underpaid for profit tax, and RUR 117.9 million for VAT.

Uralsvyazinform disagrees with the conclusions contained in the inspection statement and intends to submit its objections with regard to the statement’s rationale within legally specified time.

It is worth noting that similar tax claims in connection with traffic termination have been presented to other companies inside Svyazinvest group (Dalsvyaz, Southern Telecommunications Company, Centertelecom, Rostelecom), who are currently challenging their respective cases in court.