Raising luxury tax would not have added much to Russia's budget; was not considered in this cycle, just like personal income tax - Finance Minister Siluanov

MOSCOW. Oct 13 (Interfax) - Russia's Finance Ministry did not consider raising the luxury tax on expensive cars and real estate or amendments to the personal income tax scale as sources of increased revenue in the new budget cycle.

"Have we considered amending taxes, including the personal income tax (PIT)-the upper limit-and luxury taxes? No, we haven't, because we reached all the decisions on PIT last year, and revisiting this issue would probably be wrong," Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in response to questions from deputies at a meeting of the State Duma committee on budget and taxes.

Siluanov also said that increasing the luxury tax would not generate significant revenue for the budget.

"Luxury taxes. You know, we did raise luxury taxes. I want to say that this could be considered, but not this fiscal year, and it would not generate significant revenue. We did not include these proposals [to increase personal income tax and luxury tax rates] in our current package," Siluanov said.

The idea of not reimbursing exporters for VAT owing to the rate increase was not considered, Siluanov said in response to other proposals from deputies on ways to boost budget revenue.

"Regarding the non-refund of VAT, that is also a recurring issue. Our argument was that it would essentially amount to an export duty for our oil producers, for our exporters. We believe the burden on the oil sector is already high," Siluanov said, adding that it is important not to overdo it and create a disincentive for oil and gas exports.

"We know that this decision [refusing to refund VAT to exporters] could negatively affect the entire oil and gas industry, so the proposal was not considered, and I believe it should not be considered," Siluanov emphasized.