(RIA Novosti)-Sales tax in Russia is unlikely to replace value-added tax in the next few years, a deputy finance minister said Friday.
There have been suggestions that the change could happen in the next parliament after elections in 2007. Presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said in June the replacement could be made gradually in 2009-2011, reports Trend.
But Sergei Shatalov said, "I think that VAT will not be replaced with the sales tax and this is probably a long-term prospect."
Dvorkovich, the head of the Expert Department with the Kremlin administration, said earlier that VAT involved refunding export value-added tax, which substantially complicated its administration.
He said a sales tax was used in many countries and was easier to administer.