IMF MISSION SAID TO BE BROADLY SATISFIED WITH RUSSIA’S TAX PROGRESS.

Publication: Monitor Volume: 2 Issue: 153

The IMF mission that has been in Moscow for the past week is said to have been pleased with what it found and concluded that the Russian government is coming to grips with the problem of tax collection. The mission returned to Washington yesterday and is expected to recommend release of the delayed July tranche (about $350 million) of the Fund’s $10.1 billion three-year loan to Russia. (Interfax, August 19) Earlier, the Fund suspended payment of the July tranche, saying it was unhappy with procedures that saw tax collection plummet in the first six months of the year to 62 percent of planned levels. Interviewed on his appointment as Russia’s new finance minister, deputy premier Aleksandr Livshits called Russian tax collection "a black hole." He said it is normal not to want to pay taxes, but that Russia is unusual in being a country where it is possible "to pay no taxes at all and nothing whatever will happen." (RTR, August 18)

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