OREANDA-NEWS. May 26, 2009. The Presidium of the Russian government gave the green light to primary fiscal policy targets for 2010-2012 prepared by the Finance Ministry, which provide for no sharp tax reductions in the next three years. Most decisions in relation to the fiscal policy were adopted as anti-crisis tax stimulus measures,” the Finance Ministry wrote in a statement prepared for the Presidium, which implies, in particular, a reduction in the corporate profit tax effective 2009 to 20% from 24%, changes in the procedure for calculating crude export duties and a hike in the depreciation premium to 30% from 10%.

In mid-April economic aide to the Russian President Arkady Dvorkovich, Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina and vice PM and Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin again gave different estimates for tax reduction prospects in the country, as Dvorkovich and Nabiullina proposed leaving current taxes imposed on businesses unchanged at the time of the crisis, while Kudrin called the reports of his colleagues “public statements”. There is no mention of decreasing VAT in the document, which contains the main fiscal policy targets. Also, proposals made by the Ministry of Economic Development to raise the depreciation premium from 30% to 50% and exempt advance payments from VAT found no support in the document either.