Gaming business to close settlements with budget
According to the data of the Ministry of Finance, the collections of the gambling tax that is fully transferred to regional budgets amounted to 26.4 billion rubles (about $1 billion according to the pre-crisis exchange rate) in 2008. In 2007, 31.5 billion rubles were collected, in 2006 – 31.1 billion rubles, i.e. not much more. The high collections of 2008 are surprising as in 2007 approximately 50 regions, without waiting for the casinos to be evicted to special zones, volunteered to ban the gaming business within their territories or toughened their requirements to it considerably. Taking it into account, the Ministry of Finance, while planning the consolidated budget for 2008m estimated the potential revenues in the amount of 15.8 billion rubles. And the eventual 26.4 billion rubles, therefore, mean that the annual plan was overfulfilled by almost 70%.
These figures demonstrate that indeed the gaming business was banned or restricted in 2007 just in the regions where it had been virtually absent. The regions which had been profiting from casinos managed to do it in 2008 as well. As it can be seen from the chart, the budget of Moscow, despite the data on hundreds of closed gambling locations, received 6 billion rubles of the gambling tax, whereas the plan had been 4.8 billion rubles. It is exactly the same as in 2006 and in 2007 – i.e. before the “persecution” of the business. Gambling tax revenues also remained at the same level of 3.5 billion rubles in Saint Petersburg, though as of January 1st, 2008, the city banned operations of slot halls (one can gamble in casinos only). According to the experts, the reason why the plan was overfulfilled is in the fact that, cleaning up the market, the local authorities had closed smaller facilities failing to pay taxes. In addition, it is known that the owners of slot halls restricted within one entity of the RF frequently moved to the neighbouring ones. The elimination of the stable source of tax revenues as of July 1st, 2009, and the refusal of the Ministry of Finance to compensate for these losses make certain regions grumble. The authorities of Tataria announced that they would like to add the zone of “Kamskiye Polyany” currently operating in the republic to the list of the “reservations”. The authorities of Saint Petersburg and Primorie region suggest that the State Duma should adopt a law draft extending the term for the relocation of the business to the zones.
“Commersant”