Duma Committee Proposes To Index Land Tax Rates

The budget and taxes committee of the State Duma recommended the Lower House of parliament to pass a bill on indexing land tax rates. This bill was introduced by deputy Gennady Kulik. Earlier, this bill provided for indexing the land tax by 1.5 times, however, the government suggested indexing the tax rate by 2 times and the committee supported this proposal. According to Russian legislation, 30 per cent of collected land taxes and rent fees are allocated to the federal budget, 20 per cent to the regional budget and 50 per cent to the local budget. In the opinion of deputies, indexing will allow for reserving 90 per cent of collected taxes in regional budgets. In 2001 budget revenues from these taxes are expected to reach about 34.1bn rubles ($1.15bn).