Putin signs bill permitting Federal Tax Service to disclose tax data on food sellers to govt agencies

MOSCOW. Aug 4 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill permitting the Federal Tax Service (FTS) to provide other agencies with data on food sellers and suppliers, transactions between them and prices for food price monitoring purposes.

The document was published on the official legal information portal on Tuesday.

The bill adds a new clause to Article 5 of the law on trade, which lists the powers granted to the government in the field of trade regulation. The new clause permits the government to approve a list of federal authorities entitled to receive information on companies which sell and supply food, transactions between them, the prices of goods sold, sales volumes, the income, expenditure and profit of these companies based on data from tax returns, accounts and audits on consolidated financial reports. The government will approve the list of food goods for which agencies will be entitled to receive information.

Article 20 of the law, which regulates the state-run information system for trade, will now include a rule whereby the FTS provides government-authorized agencies with the information for the monitoring, assessment and holistic analysis of trends and factors forming the prices of food from the government list. The FTS will agree with the Economy Development Ministry on which information is to be provided and in which form, electronic or otherwise.

The explanatory note says that the bill was developed for monitoring prices at all stages of the movement of food goods and for the analysis of reasons for rapid price growth by the agencies concerned, which require access to the information constituting a tax secret.

Putin also signed a bill making a corresponding amendment to Article 102 of the Russian Tax Code: tax secrets can also include information which the FTS submits to government-authorized agencies, and this can only be accessed by officials who are appointed by their superiors within the agencies.

The bill will enter into force from January 1, 2027.