PARIS, January 26 (RIA Novosti) - The government office's decision to include a cut in valued added tax in the country's medium term economic development plan means that the prime minister is taking personal responsibility for the move, Russia's finance minister said Thursday.
A government source said Wednesday that a cut from 18% to 13% had been included in the medium-term program of Russia's social and economic development for 2006-2008.
"That means that the Russian prime minister took personal responsibility [for the decision]," Alexei Kudrin said.
Kudrin and his colleague Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref, two of the country's most influential ministers, criticized the move Thursday. Both ministers support the idea of VAT cuts to 15%-16% starting in 2009.
"It is the first time in my experience that major changes that were rejected during preliminary considerations have been made to such a high-profile document without prior discussion by the Cabinet and coordination with the main ministers," Kudrin said.
He said he was surprised that the document had nevertheless been signed, adding that the negative consequences of the proposed VAT cut would be felt in several years.
"It is possible that the Finance Ministry will have to recalculate the whole three-year budget plan after the appearance of the revised version of the [economic development] program, which will obviously take time," the minister said. "And only after that will we be able to say with certainty whether this responsibility for new decisions can be rationally shared with [Prime Minister] Mikhail Fradkov."
The Finance Ministry earlier proposed cutting VAT from the current 18% to 15% from 2009 and introducing a flat VAT rate (the current VAT for socially important goods is 10%).
