| Horsepower prices will rise in Moscow The Moscow authorities, although they were left without revenues to road funds, but still did not bother the capital's car owners with tax increases for several years, nevertheless decided to lighten their wallets. Yesterday, the press service of the capital's government reported that Mayor Yuri Luzhkov approved a bill on changing transport tax rates and in the near future this document will be presented to the Moscow City Duma deputies for approval. Lawmakers will have to determine how much, starting in 2006, Muscovites will have to pay annually to the budget for the right to be called the owner of a car or other taxable movable property such as motor boats, yachts, motorcycles and snowmobiles.
The appetites of the mayor's office are already partially known, and it is unlikely that the capital's parliamentarians will dare to repeat the feat of their predecessors, who in the late 90s, under pressure from an indignant public, seriously adjusted the rates proposed by the city government. At that time, such populism was justified, since it was a question of a multiple increase in payments, which provoked discontent among motorists who organized several protest rallies. Now, only owners of powerful and, as a rule, expensive cars with at least 250 “horses” live under the hood will suffer a serious blow to their pockets. For them, the rate will almost triple (from 35 to 100 rubles for each horsepower) and annual tax payments will for the first time approach an unprecedented amount for Moscow of a thousand dollars. Payments will also double for owners of the most common cars with a capacity of up to 100 horsepower - both domestic and foreign cars. However, even after 2006, owners of, for example, Zhiguli cars will not have to pay more than 1,000 rubles, which is not burdensome for most motorists. per year (tax benefits will also remain).
Owners of cars who do not go to “extremes” and are, roughly speaking, in the range between a Zhiguli and a Hummer, will face an increase in transport tax rates by 33-50%. The mayor's office, however, prefers to use not these figures for clarification, but much less frightening expressions that rates will increase by 5-10 rubles. per horsepower - exactly the same as it was during the last “indexation” in 2002. However, it is possible that during the discussion of the Moscow government’s proposals in the Moscow City Duma, more serious methods will be used. For example, deputies and townspeople will be told that the transport tax in the capital is now lower than in a number of much less wealthy regions of Russia - even in the Moscow region, car owners today pay more. Or they will remind you that much more radical ideas periodically arise in the mayor’s office - like last year’s proposal by Yuri Luzhkov to take into account when taxing not only the horsepower under the hood, but also the dimensions of the car and the presence of a catalytic converter. Fedor SEREBRYANSKY |
|
