— BUILDING THE BUDGET:

An IMF delegation left Moscow November 24, unhappy with government plans to print money to re-float weak or failed banks and businesses. The delegation did not see the draft budget for 1999, which remains in dispute within the government. The latest date for sending the draft to the Duma is December 6. The IMF mission plans to return around that time…. The draft budget is likely to include a tax cut. Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov wants to cut the value-added tax from 20 percent to 14 percent in 1999 and 10 percent in 2000. He also wants to bring the corporate-profits tax down from 35 percent to 30 percent. Lower rates should improve compliance and allow more rational pricing of some subsidized goods and services, including electricity. Federal tax collections now are running at a very meager 9 percent of GDP.