Russian Central Bank finds no reason to exempt banks from paying windfall tax - Nabiullina

MOSCOW. March 17 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has found no good reason to exempt banks from contributing to the budget, though this should affect credit institutions that do not take advantage of the regulator's concessions, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said.

"In terms of banks contributing to the budget, to be honest, we did not find any good reasons to make exceptions to the general rule in this situation. Our only position is that this should be banks that do not use our regulatory easing," Nabiullina said.

Sberbank CEO Herman Gref has already said that his forecasts for 2023 account for the possibility of paying the windfall tax to the budget.

The windfall tax is a one-time levy that Russian enterprises are to remit to the budget from excess profits.