How to give the Russian economy a new impetus? The increased interest of the government in the reform of the banking system was manifested both in the change in the leadership of the Central Bank and in the revision of the state's participation in the capital of banks. This interest has been...

How to give the Russian economy a new impetus?

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The government's increased interest in reforming the banking system was manifested both in the change in the leadership of the Central Bank and in the revision of the state's participation in the capital of banks. This interest is caused primarily by a slight slowdown in the country's economic growth over the past two years. Now the best minds are thinking hard about what exactly can give a new impetus to the development of the Russian economy. In 1998, the default spurred the country on and created favorable conditions for domestic producers. On this wave of upsurge in activity, the economy grew at an increased rate for 2-3 years. But no one wants a repeat of 1998, and a country like Russia can and must find internal sources of development.

Now, according to the government, banks can become one of the "growth centers" of the economy and a source of a new wave of investment, as is customary in developed countries. But here it is important not to overdo it with reforms, since the banking system has not yet fully recovered from the crisis. The cumulative growth of banking assets is only 81% of the pre-crisis level. A comparison of Russian banks with Western ones shows that the ratio of the total capital of banks to GDP in developed countries exceeds the Russian indicator by almost an order of magnitude. There, banking funds work in the economy several times more actively than in Russia. In our country, most of the enterprises are developing at their own expense, and not with the help of bank loans.

But you cannot increase the equity capital of banks by order. It can grow either at the expense of an additional issue, or at the expense of profit, which will be directed to capitalization. But part of the profit is divided in the form of dividends between shareholders, and part is withdrawn by the state in the form of income tax. Not the largest part of the profit goes to increase bank capital. Until 2002, 43% of the profits were taken from banks in the form of taxes, this year the tax pressure is somewhat relaxed - 24%.

Concern about the insufficiently rapid growth of banks' capital prompted the president of Sberbank, A. Kazmin, to speak at an economic forum held in St. Petersburg with an initiative to exempt banks from tax on profits aimed at capitalization for five years. The current tax system does not encourage banks to save, and hopes for foreign investment in the banking system are very illusory, since the share of foreign capital in banks is constantly decreasing and currently stands at only 6%.

Despite the fact that insufficient capitalization is the main drawback of the banking system and the need to increase it is written in the joint strategy for the development of the banking sector of the government and the Central Bank, A. Kazmin's idea had many fierce opponents. Their argument boils down to the fact that banks have already been taxed from 43% to 24%, and it is not very clear why such an exemption should be provided to banks (although it is not clear, rather, why they were previously driven into such a position by excessive taxation). Bankers are also suspected of diverting funds from taxation. However, as the adopted Tax Code shows, fiscal payments do not depend on the type of activity, but on the economic situation. Coincidentally or not, its introduction in full coincided with the lowest economic growth rates in the last four years (more than half of which is still in the shadow, despite its adoption).

And the opinion of the head of the largest Russian bank should be heeded. What his proposal could give can be understood by the example of Sberbank itself. In 2001, the bank earned 21.9 billion rubles. profit, with which he paid 4.2 billion rubles. tax. This income tax amounted to about 5% of the bank's equity capital. The proposed measure would encourage shareholders not to withdraw dividends, but to increase capital. In proportion to the increase in capital, the attraction of funds by banks would grow - and, accordingly, loans to the real sector of the economy.

Despite the rather harsh rebuff of the opponents of granting tax breaks to banks, the bankers remain hopeful that the authorities will stimulate the increase of capital not only by raising the requirements. Five percent in the banking sector, a few more percent in the other - all together and can give an impetus.