Crude prices are still low and Russia’s government revenues are gradually narrowing. It looks like the time to introduce new taxes or increase pension age. And taxes will get anyone, despite their status or profession.
Sergei Glazyev, an economist and aide to Russia’s president, offered to introduce a tax on currency trading which volume makes up around 33 trillion rubles a month in Russia. Even a one-percent tax on this sum would bring an extra trillion rubles a quarter. The official even added that such a tax could become an alternative to privatization of large enterprises. He also proposed to increase domestic crediting to top up the budget. Such a tax was first put forward by Nobel-prize winning American economist James Tobin in 1972.
Though Tobin taxes are still in place in some fast-growing financial centers, the idea in general was not applied in any financial floor. The world’s leading countries are still discussing the levy’s viability. Tobin himself was sure that it was impossible to put his idea into action completely. However, currently, trading processes are so computerized that, according to many economists, it could actually work out.
