President Putin Meets With Head of Ministry of Finance in the Kremlin to Discuss New Tax Measures
Today, Vladimir Putin met with Anton Siluanov, Head of the Ministry of Finance in the Kremlin. The minister said that the government is preparing a number of proposals that will help achieve the goals outlined in the address of the Head of State to the Federal Assembly. They are about spending money more efficiently and how to collect taxes better.
Report by Dmitry Melnikov.
The Minister of Finance reported to Vladimir Putin what funds the government plans to use to solve the large-scale socio-economic tasks set by the President to the Federal Assembly.
Vladimir Putin: "Today we are talking about the financial support of the main aspects we agreed on in preparing the address and when it was presented to the Federal Assembly".
Anton Siluanov, Minister of Finance: "The government is preparing proposals on the implementation of the President's instructions to make the economic growth faster than the rest of the world, and improve the citizens' welfare, including support for low-income citizens and reducing poverty by half".
Welfare growth, improving the quality of life of the Russian citizens and developing infrastructure are the three points the Head of State referred to as the priority ones for all governmental bodies in the speech he delivered on March 1. The Ministry of Finance plans to receive money for this from taxes, first of all, from small enterprises, which are booming now. At the same time, Anton Siluanov emphasized that raising taxes is out of question.
Anton Siluanov: "We are preparing proposals to simplify the work of small enterprises. Most of the tasks are related to small enterprises, whose share in the economy is growing today. We believe that there are resources here due to a more complete tax collection. It's not about the overall tax burden being increased. We will work precisely in terms of improving tax collection".
One more development tool proposed by the government is more efficient targeted spending of the budget money. Its main priorities will be the formation of human capital, increasing the life expectancy and standard of living of elderly Russians, qualitative and affordable healthcare, so it is necessary to double the expenses. The introduction of the cancer prevention program, education and affordable housing: the Ministry of Finance proposes to review the priorities of the budget expenditure.
Anton Siluanov: "First of all, it is necessary to help those in need, as stated in the address. Today, we keep the old Soviet principles of distributing financial aid to everyone bit by bit. And we believe that it is necessary to focus specifically on those in need so that people with low incomes feel a tangible addition to their budgets".
The regions have to solve many of the tasks outlined in the address using their own budgets. The Ministry of Finance suggests revising their financial relations with the center, and motivating the subjects to earn more.
For large-scale infrastructure projects, such as the development of transport networks and mass communications, the government suggests actively attracting private capital under state guarantees.
Dmitry Melnikov — Vesti