MOSCOW, June 1 (RIA Novosti) - Business should not aggressively use the existing drawbacks of the legislation and the tax system should precisely regulate and explain issues of the legislation functioning, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Tuesday. The Yukos case affected the trust in Russian economy and it will take time to restore this trust.
"I hope the Yukos case will never recur," the minister said. It demands equal responsibility of the state and business. "Yukos was a serious lesson to us."
Yesterday the Meshchansky Court in Moscow sentenced former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Menatep head Platon Lebedev to nine years of imprisonment each. They were charged with fraud and tax evasion.
The state and business reached compromise on all issues when introducing amendments to the first part of the Tax Code, Kudrin said.
After that, an additional list of proposals will be submitted for discussion.
"We should preserve the spirit of dialogue in drafting this legislation," the minister said.
According to him, the last four years saw serious experience of tax reforms. The tax reform made a contribution into investment growth in Russia.
"We should realize that the tax reform surpassed the judiciary system and administrative sphere which also need changes," Kudrin said. Further reforms need improvement in these spheres, he added.
