Gambling tax collections reducing fast
According to the data of the Federal Treasury, as of September 1st, 2007, the collections of gambling tax were 21.3. billion rubles. In the event of any other tax such dynamics would mean that the annual plan of 30.2 billion rubles would be easily fulfilled, and regional budgets (which receive the gambling tax) would get the expected gains. But this situation is different. Let us remind you that the law restricting the gaming business, which was adopted by the State Duma in 2006, not only evicts casinos and slot halls to the four reservations from July 1st, 2009, but also gives regions the right to introduce independent bans in this area from July 1st, 2007.
As a result, many RF constituent territories decided to sacrifice the interests of their budgets and hastened to make political decisions banning the gaming business. As of September, it was done by about 50 regions. In particular, Krasnodar, Ivanovo and Belgorod regions completely banned gambling facilities from July 1st, 2007. A number of regions, including Stavropol, Tchelyabinsk and Kursk regions eliminated slot halls since that date but let casinos be.
Under these circumstances the budget collections from the tax from the second half of 2007 will irrevocably go down, and the annual plan will not be fulfilled, for the first time over recent years. The collections will be still reducing in the next year – a part of the RF constituent territories delayed the introduction of the bans till January 1st, 2008. Following all these decisions, the tax the collections from which have been boosting lately (the amount collected in 2006 was three times more than in 2004 – 31.1 billion compared to 10.1 billion), can become history soon. Some smoothness in the reduction of collections is added by Moscow only – the city is still refraining from bans. In 2008, they plan to collect 4.8 billion rubles from the gaming business, 20% less than in 2007.
the “Commersant”