Customs Service Contributes More
According to data released by the Finance Ministry on federal budget fulfillment in 2007, The Federal Tax Service contributed 3.74 trillion rubles to the federal budget, and the Federal Customs Service 3.247 trillion rubles. The share of the tax service in budget contributions in 2007 was 48.2 percent, and of the customs service 41.8 percent, of the 7.764 trillion ruble total. (Ten percent came from other ministries and agencies.)
The tax service has been contributing an ever increasing share of budget income in the past five years. Two factors account for this. First is the stable growth of Russian export production (oil, gas, metals), leading to higher export duties collected. The second factor is the tremendous growth of imports, on which the tax service imposes duties, VAT and excise taxes.
In 2003, the tax service's share of federal budget income was 64.7 percent, and the customs service's 29.3 percent. In 2004, it was tax service 57 percent, customs service 35.6 percent; in 2005, tax service 52 percent, customs service 41 percent. The customs service came closest to the tax service's mark in 2006, when the tax service contributed 47.8 percent to the customs service's 45.6 percent. That year's figures were not so much a result of the customs service's successes as of the tax service's problems. The year was highly unsuccessful for the tax service's domestic VAT collection. Because of changes is payment rules, its receipts for the year were only 4 percent higher than the previous year, while inflation was 9 percent.
In 2007, transitional problems with VAT payment remained about the same, but the bankruptcy of YUKOS propped up the taxmen's figures, paying 585 billion rubles of debt into the budget. or almost 16 percent of the service's total receipts for the year. If it were not for YUKOS, the customs service would have contributed more to the budget than the tax service for the first time, surpassing the tax service by 1 percent. The growing influence of the customs service on domestic policy – regardless of who is heading it – is also largely due to these factors.
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All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 21, 2008
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Photo: Dmitry Saltykovsky
