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PwC Russia Given 5 Years
Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Shatalov extended the license of PricewaterhouseCoopers (Russia) for another five years. Finance Ministry apparently preferred not to wait for the arbitration award that could be used as an argument against prolonging the license.
Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Shatalov signed a decree yesterday extending for five years the licenses of 71 Russia’s auditors, including Russia’s subsidiary of PwC. That license expires May 20 actually, but financial bureaucrats preferred to act in advance.
The thing is that Federal Tax Service faults PwC for helping Yukos avoid taxes and Moscow Arbitration invalidated its audit deals with Yukos. But PwC may appeal against the award till April 27. Though no appeal has been lodged so far, according to informal sources, the award isn’t deemed valid as long as there is time to go to law against it. So, Finance Ministry apparently decided to extend the license before the award takes effect, avoiding direct clashes with arbitration and tax authorities.
Finance Ministry declined to comment yesterday, Federal Tax Service didn’t comment either. Anyway, the auditors will need no license after July 1. On December 29, 2006, President Vladimir Putin sealed a decree canceling license procedures for audit in Russia. Starting from July, PwC will just have to be a member of self-managed organization of auditors – Institute of Professional Accountants and the Audit Chamber of Russia, but the company has joined them already.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 20, 2007
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