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Opinion
April 28, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 20
2019, after the presidential election scheduled for March of next year. This is for a good reason: tax adjustments are politically dicey. Widespread, if small-sized, protests by truckers over highway fares are already a signal that even increases in indirect taxes may be politically fraught.
This appears not to be lost on the Kremlin, with reports indicating that Putin upbraided in a letter a number of officials for publically discussing tax plans. The present plan may be to wait and hope the economy improves before further discussion, but the fact that there has been any talk of tax increases, let alone with specific terms, is already a departure from the norm and signal of intent
by economic planners. Tax discussions may also be a political opportunity for Putin to descend to the mortal political plane and publically rebuke an overzealous finance ministry, earning political credit while securing passage for a less radical manoeuvre.
All that said though, for the government asking Russians to contribute more of their earnings to the budget in the mid-term will not increase their appetite for wasteful spending or willingness to put up with corruption from their officials. The manoeuvre is just a ship-steadying change: nota- ble, but still not the sort of fundamental structural reform so often described as necessary.