Btw , why isn't there any article on rt about this one?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/01/us-russia-economy-tax-idUSKBN0G13H420140801President Vladimir Putin has decided to introduce a sales tax on Russian consumers, two sources acquainted with the issue said on Thursday, raising the tax burden earlier than expected as Western sanctions deepen the country's financial woes.
According to Uralsib Capital, the sanctions together with the sales tax and tight monetary policy may reduce economic growth by up to one percentage point over the next two years, while adding up to two percentage points to consumer inflation in 2015. This year the economy is on track to post 0.4% growth according to central bank forecasts, compared with an average growth expectation of around 6% previously.
It is a regional tax "allowing each administrative district to decide on a sales tax of up to 3 percent to make up for [regional] budget shortfalls"...
"The VAT will not be touched. Sales tax will be up to three percent depending on the decision of the region. Everything will go to the budget of the region," said one of the sources acquainted with the issue.
I know what the tax is about as i always read the articles before posting or quoting them.
The fact is that the economic growth took a nose dive and that a new tax is needed to cover for budget deficit.
Yet , no Russia today article on this move. Why/ Simple , because it's creating a bad image.
The same propaganda war on each side:
RT:
http://rt.com/business/178028-russia-eu-sanctions-dobrolet/British Airways, Air France and Lufthansa are the biggest EU airlines. Lufthansa said it could potentially lose more than €1 billion in three months if it does not use trans-Siberian routes, according to Forbes.The three air carriers told RT they weren’t commenting on a possible block on European flights as they don’t have any information.
uS:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-05/aeroflot-reaches-4-month-low-on-report-russia-to-curb-overflight.htmlRussia’s possible curbs on European carriers crossing Siberian airspace in response to Ukraine-related sanctions would have a limited impact on travel, even as news of the threat weighed on airline stocks.
Service from Europe to Japan and South Korea could be most affected, an analysis of routings on the Flightradar24 website shows. At the same time, relatively few carriers cross eastern Russia, in contrast with more crowded skies closer to Moscow.
and like I was saying:
Russia would also be disproportionately hurt by any tit-for-tat move from the European Union to close its own airspace to Aeroflot and peers, said Oliver Sleath, a Barclays Plc analyst in London.
“This is extremely unlikely to happen because the response would be more crippling to the Russian economy,” Sleath said. Russian flights cross EU airspace outnumber European carriers’ trips over Siberia, he said.