The Russian Finance Ministry does not plan to significantly decrease the tax burden for at least the next three years, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov said at a news conference Tuesday.
Shatalov said that the transition this year to quarterly value-added tax (VAT) payments from monthly VAT payments effectively gave companies a tax break.
"Some people believe (the transition) has simply shifted the tax burden (to future periods), but it really did cut the tax burden by 250 billion rubles in 2008," he said.
In the past three years, the tax burden has decreased annually by approximately 1% of gross domestic product (GDP), Shatalov said. In particular, the tax burden decreased by 1.14% of GDP in 2006, and by approximately 1% of GDP in 2007, he said.
The Finance Ministry is not planning any major tax-reduction policies similar to the new VAT collection system, Shatalov said, adding that the ministry did not plan on reducing the VAT.