At a meeting of the State Duma on March 14, 2001, the deputies supported a parliamentary inquiry prepared by Alexander Shishlov (the Yabloko faction) to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on accelerating the adoption of government resolutions which determine the procedure for exempting advance payments from VAT (obtained for future shipments of hi-tech equipment with a long manufacturing term).

Proceeding from Yabloko’s proposals, the Duma draws the attention of the Prime Minister to the fact that the slow reaction of the government, which has hindered the adoption of such a resolution for over a year already prevents the application of the amendments of the Tax Code that has come into force and the exemption of these advance payments from VAT.

The inquiry also notes that the VAT levied on enterprise assets leads to a sharp increase in the cost of domestic production with a long manufacturing term, inflicts considerable damage on its competitiveness on global markets and adversely affects large-scale enterprises in the ship-building, energy machine-building and other machine-building enterprises that account for the backbone of domestic industry.

In an interview to the press Shishlov noted that the adoption of the resolution is extremely important for St. Petersburg, which hosts the largest industrial enterprises – exporters, such as the Leningrad Metallurgy Plant, Elektrosila, the Baltic Plant and others.

The results of the voting for sending the parliamentary inquiry (as a percentage of the number of factions and in terms of the number of votes):

See also:

Russian Duma Rejects Government No-Confidence Motion
By Ron Popeski, Reuters, March 14, 2001

Putin Faces Cabinet Upheaval
St Petersburg Times, #650, Tuesday, March 6, 2001

Declaration on attitude to the Government of Mikhail Kasyanov
The Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, The State Duma of the Russian Federation, The Yabloko faction, February 20, 2001