Russia proposes to reduce VAT on socially important goods

It is proposed to reduce VAT on socially important goods in Russia. As "Izvestia" found out, such a bill will be submitted to the State Duma on November 19 by deputies of the faction "Just Russia - For Truth" headed by Sergei Mironov.

"The present bill proposes to reduce from 10 to 5% the value added tax on certain groups of goods that are socially important for broad groups of citizens of the Russian Federation. In this case, if the inflation rate for a group of socially important goods for the previous calendar year exceeds the inflation rate for all groups of goods, the value added tax rate for this group of goods in the next tax period is set at 0%," reads the document, which is available to Izvestia.

It notes that this system of taxation is established for food products: livestock and poultry meat, meat products, milk and milk products, eggs, vegetable oil, margarine, special purpose fats, sugar, salt, bread and bakery products and others. It is also proposed to extend it to goods for children (knitted, hosiery, sewing products, children's beds, strollers, etc.), medicines, medical products, printed periodicals.

"Socially important goods, such as food products and goods for children, are critical for the population and make up a significant part of the consumer basket of citizens. The rise in their prices strongly affects the standard of living, especially for people with low incomes, and in order to stop the rise in the price of these goods and to achieve a reduction in their cost, we propose to lower VAT, and in some cases it is necessary to set a zero bar," Mironov explained to Izvestia.

In early October, the results of monitoring of the analytical center of the Association of Retail Trade Companies (ACORT) showed that the cost of socially important products in retail chains decreased in September. Prices for "first-price" goods from the line of essential food products decreased in retail chains by 1.2%. Compared to August, the rate of price reduction accelerated almost threefold (from -0.41% a month earlier).

According to ACORT, the main reason for the September dynamics is the seasonal decline in prices for vegetables of borsch set. White cabbage in retail chains fell in price in September compared to August by 23.75%, carrots - by 21.5%, beets - by 19%, potatoes - by 18%, onions - by 10.6%. In addition, the cost of seasonal apples decreased by 8.3%, granulated sugar - by 4%, broiler chicken carcass - by 3.2%, lamb - by 2%, beef - by 1.2%. At the same time, the most noticeable price increase in September was noted in large retail chains for butter, wheat bread and milk. Rice, vermicelli and millet also went up in price.