MOSCOW, June 28 (RIA Novosti) - A capital amnesty may attract $15 billion to the Russian economy straight away, a member of the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, said today.
Pavel Voronin, who sits on the Duma's committee for budget and taxes, was speaking after a roundtable that discussed the legislative framework for implementing presidential instructions to encourage people to make capital investments in the national economy.
"At least $15 billion will come [to Russia] straight away," Voronin said. "If the term is extended, the influx could be more substantial."
Voronin said the amount of money would depend on whether there were exceptions or not. He said the conditions should be the same for everyone: a 13% tax rate and a Russian bank account.
He said a capital amnesty was an ethical and psychological issue. He said tax violations left asset owners uncomfortable, were a way of pressurizing businessmen, and also bred corruption.
According to Voronin, it is important to explain to people that tax bodies will not prosecute them, and that they will have six months, for example, to return their capital to Russia. He said six months was an optimal timeframe, and it should be preceded by explanations to allay people's fears.
Voronin also said liberalizing capital export was another way to attract capital to the country.
"Those people who have exported money will continue doing so, and we are talking about those who earned money and cannot use it," he said. The parliamentarian also cited statistics that a tax amnesty had brought $700 million to Kazakhstan in 2005. A tax amnesty in India attracted $2.5 billion in 1997.
Voronin quoted expert estimates that at least $100 billion in Russian money was being kept abroad, and this money could be returned to the country.
