Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said that the government was "pressing on with tax reforms," recalling that from 2004 VAT would go down from 20% to 18% and the sales tax would then be abolished.
The unified social tax or payroll tax will also be lowered in the near future, efforts to simplify taxation will continue and redundant taxes will be abolished, he said.
Kasyanov added that cumulative foreign investment in Russia is still on the low side at just US$48.3 billion, although first-half figures were encouraging.
Russia received US$12.7 billion from abroad during the half, 50% more than in the same period last year, Kasyanov told a meeting of the government's Advisory Board on Foreign Investments.
But foreign investment, which is "concentrated in the primary sector and in central Russia," could be better distributed, he remarked.
Source: Interfax
