Tax burden on commodity sectors near limit due to weak global demand - Russian MinFin

ST. PETERSBURG. June 15 (Interfax) - The tax burden of the Russian commodity business is near its limit given weak global demand for its products, and any increase could have a "destructive" effect, the Russian Finance Ministry thinks.

"The global economy has now slowed, and this affects demand for commodities. And in this respect, of course, the potential to increase the tax burden on the commodities sector is quite limited," Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Sazanov said at a St. Petersburg International Economic Forum session on fine-tuning the Russian tax system

"In many cases, we have already reached the limit, and stepping over it [by increasing the tax burden] will already have destructive effects on the sectors," said Sazanov, who is responsible at the Finance Ministry for tax policy.

"In the commodity sectors, given the slowdown in world economic growth, we are approaching the maximum potential for the tax burden," he said.