Federal Customs Service has come up with an unexpectedly liberal idea of fighting inflation. Its chief, Andrei Belyaninov, on the photo, suggested canceling import duties on basic foodstuff till this year-end.
Photo: Kirill Tulin
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Duties Are the Food for Inflation
Federal Customs Service has come up with an unexpectedly liberal idea of fighting inflation. Its chief, Andrei Belyaninov suggested canceling import duties on basic foodstuff till this year-end. In FCS, they say Russia hasn’t hiked prices for agrarian imports and that imports of food don’t drive up the prices. If the duties are finally cancelled, the importers will save up to $500 million till the end of this year.
Russia’s Federal Customs Service voiced yesterday its proposals to contain food inflation. According to the FCS chief, Andrei Belyaninov, the key element of this policy could be the temporal abolishment of import duties on milk and socially vital products. This move “will help widen the product line and drive down the prices,” Belyaninov hoped.
In addition to dairy, the minimal list of socially vital foodstuff includes meat, fish, eggs, sugar, wheat flour, tea. It is for the first time that the customs authority of the country stands ready to voluntary sacrifice a portion of revenues to attain macroeconomic stability and contain prices.
From January through August, FCS said, Russia imported the vital goods for the worth of nearly $120 billion. Of this amount, the foodstuff accounted for over $7.5 billion. The imports of foodstuff (and respective raw) grew 8.3 percent on year in September, while the worth of the food imports reached $1.6 billion that month. Abolishment of duties till the year-end would curtail the importers’ costs by roughly $500 million.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 24, 2007
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