FBK at the Gaidar Forum

Andrey Tikhonovsky, FBK vice-president, took part in the work of the Gaidar Forum-2014, one of the most prominent Russian annual scientific events in economy of an international level.
This year the forum was dedicated to one of the most significant problems of today – sustainable development. Within the framework of the conference such topically important issues were discussed as the economic growth in the globally changing environment, efficient management capacity, risks of innovative businesses, new industrialization, contradictions of the resource economies and ambiguous modernization consequences for society’s economic and social-political development.
In the opinion of Andrey Tikhonovsky, one of the key topics of not only theoretical but also practical value for the economy of the country was touched upon at the panel discussion of “Key directions of tax policy for 2015-2017. New development processes and first results”.

“Taxes – that’s something that will apply to all business entities irrespective of their size and success. The tax burden on business has a direct impact on its production and investment activities; it has an influence on the rates of growth of the economy and on society at large.”

In the course of the discussion of tax policy medium-term development areas the panel participants made several suggestions on the improvement of document under the discussion:

• The current tax system is de-stimulating, it is directed against the bona fide economic subjects. The government and business entities are interested in it being predictable, stable and generating the tax burden as adequate to the current economic situation. It is the financial result that should be taxable but not the process.
• The quantities and amounts of non-tax payments by businesses in favor of the state should be necessarily cut down. Though the Tax Code includes not so many taxes – 13 – there are also numerous other payments proliferating every year. That should be taken into consideration in the “Key areas of tax policy”.
• Tax policy should be carried out in coordination with the customs-tariff policy, in particular, when forming export duties on the Russian fuel-and-energy complex basic products: oil and gas.

In the work of the round table discussion took part the representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the State Duma, the RF Chamber of Commerce and Industry, experts of the largest consulting companies, as well as the representatives of public organizations and business communities.

The Gaidar Forum has been held since 2010 in memory of Egor Gaidar, the scientist-economist, the ideologist of Russian reforms in early 1990-ies.