Central Bank Chairman Sergey Ignatyev has given a shocking estimate of the volume of fictitious operations in Russian banks – its annual volume amounts to one-third of the Russian federal budget.
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
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Russia Loses $30 Bln a Year from Shady Dealings
The volume of fictitious transactions in Russian banks comes to 2 trillion rubles, or 7 percent of the annual GDP, the Central Bank reported Tuesday. Battling fictitious operations may become a priority of the national economic policy in case officials acknowledge it is a problem.
Central Bank Chairman Sergey Ignatyev said “fictitious operations” in Russian banks amount to 1.5-2 trillion rubles in what was the first official estimate of the worth of these dealings. The Russian budget loses between 500 and 800 billion rubles from these operations annually, the banking official told the parliament Tuesday. Mr. Ignatyev said the most widespread operation in 2006 was to withdraw cash from a bank under false pretenses to pay cash-in-hand salaries and bribes to officials. Other operations included schemes of illegal VAT reimbursement, payments to offshore-registered firms for fictitious services or goods and payments for “grey” imports which are worth $4 billion monthly.
The share of “grey” imports in the total import volume is between 20 and 30 percent, according to some experts. The Russian Economic Development Ministry says up to 80 percent of some goods are imported to Russia with no excises and VAT paid, which makes Russian goods less competitive.
The Regional Banks Association and Russian police are currently working together to create the joint database of invalid passports which are often used to register fly-by-night firms. The banking sector lays great hopes on the system, hoping it will dramatically cut on illegal cashing in banks. “If the invalid passports database is available for all banks, the price of illegal cashing will be too high,” says Pavel Medvedev, deputy head of the State Duma’s banking committee.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 21, 2007
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