| The global auto giant fell into Russia's tax debts The global auto giant fell into tax debt in Russia. For the first time in the entire period of its work in Russia, Ford Motor Company CJSC filed claims against it. However, the company itself claims that its relationship with tax authorities is quite cloudless. If disagreements really arose between the Federal Tax Service and Ford Motor, then they are unlikely to improve the image of Russia for such large automakers as Volkswagen and DaimlerChrysler, with whom the Ministry of Economic Development has been negotiating for a long time.
Yesterday, Interfax, citing several of its own sources in the Leningrad regional department of the Federal Tax Service, reported that the Ford plant in the city of Vsevolozhsk was facing “major tax claims.” “The company is large and the claims are also large,” the agency reports the words of a tax official. The amount of the claims is not reported, it is only known that it exceeds 40 million rubles. Interfax sources do not explain why this particular amount appears.
The Vremya Novostey newspaper also failed to establish the size of tax claims against the Ford plant, although the very fact of their existence was covered in details. Employees of the Federal Tax Service for the Leningrad Region categorically refuse to discuss this topic, explaining that they are prohibited from commenting by the law providing for liability for disclosing tax secrets. Tax officials only say that over the past year they have sent several demands to the company, which Ford appealed in arbitration. “The trials have been dragging on for quite a long time, and while they are going on, I won’t tell you anything. However, even when the decision is made, we still won’t be able to say anything,” an employee of the regional tax service told the correspondent. However, the company itself does not confirm the fact of tax claims being presented to it. Ford Motor Russia spokeswoman Ekaterina Kulinenko said that the company had not received such demands. The vice-president of the Russian division of Ford, Sergei Bogdanov, as well as the Vsevolozhsk officials who oversee the project, also know nothing about the conflict with the tax authorities.
The construction of the Ford plant, with an investment of over $150 million at the turn of 1990 and 2000, became an exemplary project of cooperation with a landmark foreign investor, who was granted serious customs and tax breaks. It is they who, theoretically, could become the reason for possible tax claims, suggests an interlocutor in the government of the Leningrad region.
“The region gave benefits, and then federal legislation changed. Now there is a reason for questions,” says the official, emphasizing that he does not know about the essence of the claims.
This spring, an agreement was signed on the construction of a Toyota automobile plant in St. Petersburg. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has long been promising that by the end of this year the same contracts can be concluded with two more auto giants - Volkswagen and DaimlerChrysler. But foreign investors are afraid like hell of the changeability of legislation in Russia. In all negotiations, they usually ask the main question: will they be considered criminals for something that was completely legal yesterday? And in the Ford story, if the claims really exist, this is exactly what happened. Therefore, the conflict, if it exists, could seriously complicate the transformation of St. Petersburg and its environs into the “Russian Detroit”, which is the dream of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Smolny and the government of the Leningrad region. Dmitry ANDREEV, St. Petersburg |
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