The Ministry of Finance declared war on cash

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov , speaking at the Gaidar Forum, promised the fight against cash. According to him, the shadow sector is up to 30% of GDP, the share of cash payments in monetary circulation is 25% (in developed countries - 7-10%, in developing - 15%). “If all the large purchases, all salary calculations would be made in non-cash form, transparently, then we could increase the volume of taxes,” Siluanov said and added that this can be imputed through the regulatory field. ” And here - stop! The idea with a decrease in the share of cash in circulation in itself is not new and rather reasonable. It is reasonable for at least one reason - the less cash goes in the country, the easier it is to identify corruption. There are other arguments in favor of non -cash. In particular, the growth of cashless payments increases the tax base and allows you to increase budget revenues due to administration without resorting to an increase in the tax burden. This is evidenced by Anton Siluanov. I heard the same argument from the representative of the Turkish Garati Bank, who cited it, telling how the government did not interfere with the introduction of non -cash calculations in this country. In Turkey, the fight against cash, which is conducted by introducing bonuses and discounts for card calculations, has already gone for several years, and they are going to build a “society free from cash” by 2023. But this is because they did not attract the state and did not use power methods. This path is apparently not suitable for us. To stimulate citizens to use cards, gradually, year after year, displacing cash from circulation? Invented new services and bonuses to own the card was more profitable and interesting than in cash? For what? Moreover, the problem with filling the budget of that and look will arise, it must be solved now, and not in a few years. It is not yet clear exactly what measures had in mind Siluanov, but it can be assumed that it will be. Some time ago, as you know, the head of Sberbank German Gref wrote a letter to the government , in which he proposed to declare war on cash. As measures, it was proposed to pay all salaries, pensions and benefits for cards, except for hard -to -reach areas and micro -enterprises, as well as oblige all outlets to accept bank cards for payment. As a bonus, Gref proposed reducing VAT by 5 percentage points. For all purchases made on cards. Then the Ministry of Finance said that the idea with a decrease in VAT looks strange. Indeed, the authorities are unlikely to go to reduce taxes - but they will be able to easily accept everyone. Nevertheless, a public council of combating cash payments was created under the Ministry of Finance, which, according to market participants, was never going to. The most offensive in this story is that the idea is correct - a reduction in the share of cash in the economy will clearly benefit it. But excess administrative pressure can easily bury any good idea.