Translated material
Intelligent security officer
A native of St. Petersburg again became the head of the Federal Tax Service
Mikhail Mokretsov was appointed head of the Federal Tax Service (FTS) yesterday. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin introduced the new head to department employees. “This is not the version of a security officer, this is an intellectual, a thoughtful person, very professionally versed in taxes,” these are the words Kudrin described Mr. Mokretsov in a conversation with journalists. Before his appointment to the new post, Mikhail Mokretsov worked as deputy head of the Federal Tax Service.Mikhail Mokretsov was born in 1961 in the Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1984 he graduated from the Leningrad Financial and Economic Institute named after. N.A. Voznesensky. From 1992 to 1996 he worked as financial director of the Rosagrico company. Before joining the tax department in 2000, Mr. Mokretsov headed the A&P Audit company.
Since 2004, he worked as Deputy Head of the Department of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties in Moscow, where he was transferred from St. Petersburg from a similar position, which he had held since 2001.
“When I was asked to name a candidate for the post of head of the Federal Tax Service, I named Mokretsov. Firstly, to maintain continuity in leadership, and secondly, Mokretsov is a qualified specialist,” said the Minister of Finance. Speaking about the tasks for the near future, Mr. Kudrin emphasized that, despite everything that has been done in the field of tax administration, improving its quality remains a top priority. According to the minister, it is necessary to make clear “a whole range of procedures” for business. “I would like the results of improving VAT administration to be significantly noticeable,” the head of the Ministry of Finance emphasized.
The Minister of Finance expressed the hope that the new head of the department will be able to complete everything that was started by his predecessor Anatoly Serdyukov , while taking into account the complaints about the work of the department and correcting all the shortcomings.
What is expected today from the new head of the tax department is, first of all, to change the image of the tax service. The former head of the Federal Tax Service, Anatoly Serdyukov, now appointed to the post of Minister of Defense, almost openly conflicted with the higher department - the Ministry of Finance, at times openly expressing a “special” opinion regarding the Ministry of Finance’s letters and orders. The lack of subordination greatly irritated Minister Kudrin, despite the fact that yesterday, introducing Mr. Mokretsov, Kudrin entered the hall almost hand in hand with the former head of the Federal Tax Service.
A year ago, at a board meeting of the Ministry of Finance, to which the head of the Federal Tax Service did not consider it necessary to appear, the Minister of Finance irritably threw out the phrase: “Despite the words of Mikhail Efimovich (Fradkov - Ed. ) that the tax service works well, we have a lot to do with it claims." The Ministry of Finance has repeatedly recommended that tax officials conduct a more active dialogue with society. The recommendations, however, had no effect. As a result, the country's former chief tax officer condescended only to a virtual press conference, without holding a single meeting with journalists during his entire tenure in office and without giving a single interview, except for his departmental magazine.
The episode with Mr. Serdyukov’s visit to the State Duma in March last year is also noteworthy. The deputies congratulated the man, who had worked in his post for almost two years, on his “successful debut.” The fact is that the ex-head of the Federal Tax Service not only never met with business associations, but did not even pay an official visit to deputies and senators. As a result, the majority of deputies simply did not recognize the “high tax guest.” In his reluctance to shine, the country's former chief tax officer seems to have surpassed even the heads of the special services.
The new head of the tax service, Mikhail Mokretsov, in his former post as deputy head of the Federal Tax Service, was also a non-public person. Nevertheless, his last name is very well known to the business community. It was under his signature that letters and explanations from the Federal Tax Service were often issued, seriously complicating the lives of taxpayers. Many of them would probably paraphrase yesterday’s Kudrin definition “this is not a security officer, this is an intellectual” into the phrase “an intelligent security officer.” Whether Mikhail Mokretsov is ready to change the image of the tax department will become clear soon. A Federal Tax Service board meeting is scheduled for February 28, where the new head of the department will have to voice his priorities.