Russian Prime Minister Promises No New Taxes Within 6 Years

Russian taxpayers will be spared new tax burden until at least 2025, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in parliament on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th April, 2019) Russian taxpayers will be spared new tax burden until at least 2025, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in parliament on Wednesday.

"We have made a principled decision not to increase tax burden in the next six years," he said during the presentation of the government's annual report to the State Duma.

Medvedev said his cabinet had to adjust the state tax system, including the value-added tax (VAT), to avoid tax hikes.

"It was not an easy step but a necessary one. Remember we kept in place all VAT exemptions for significant goods and services," he stressed.

Russia has had a flat personal income tax rate of 13 percent since 2001, one of the lowest in Europe. Medvedev said in 2015 that introducing a progressive income tax scale would create more tax dodgers and likened it to butchering a chicken that lays golden eggs.