Finance Minister: Russia’s Draft 2015 Budget Envisages No Sales Tax

MOSCOW, September 18 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s draft 2015 budget does not envisage any increase in taxes, including the introduction of sales tax, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Thursday.

“We managed to avoid raising taxes, raising the tax burden, and this is important,” the minister said.

The Russian government approved the draft 2015 budget earlier in the day.

The budget stipulates incomes at 15.082 trillion rubles ($392 billion, 19.4% of Russian GDP), expenditures of 15.513 trillion rubles ($403 billion, 20% of GDP) and the budget deficit of 430 billion rubles (almost 11.2 billion at the current exchange rate).