Monitoring/income

According to the Federal Tax Service (FTS), in January-March 2013, the consolidated budget of the Russian Federation received 2.623 trillion rubles, which is 5.6% more than was collected in the first three months of 2012. Of this amount, the federal budget received 1.326 trillion rubles in the first quarter. (an increase of 7.2% compared to the comparable period in 2012), to the budgets of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation - 1.297 trillion rubles. (4% more than a year earlier). Basically (83%) the amount of revenues in the first quarter came from four main taxes. These are VAT (495 billion rubles), mineral extraction tax (623 billion rubles), personal income tax (507 billion rubles) and income tax (548 billion rubles). Let us remind you that VAT and mineral extraction tax form the basis of the federal budget, income tax and profit tax form the basis of the regional budget.

The collections of last year's leader in growth rates among these four, severance tax, increased by only 1.8% compared to the comparable period in 2012. First of all, this is explained by the stable price of Russian oil (the average price for 2012 was $110.5 per barrel, for the first quarter of 2013 — $111 per barrel). As a result, the first in terms of growth rates in the first quarter was income tax - plus 11% compared to the same period in 2012. The reason is the growth of incomes of the population, primarily of public sector workers. As Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday in the State Duma with a report, the average salary in healthcare in 2012 increased by almost 18%, teachers' salaries increased by more than 20%.

VAT collections in the first quarter of 2013 increased in line with the inflation rate - by 6.5% compared to the same period last year. As Kommersant has already noted, the tax service explains the modest VAT collection figures for technical reasons - an unforeseen increase in deductions for capital investments. Many large companies, primarily those with state participation, are now actively claiming amounts of this tax for deduction in connection with the completion of large investment projects.

There are also technical problems with income tax. At the end of the quarter, its revenues decreased by 3.6% compared to the comparable period. Previously, similar seasonal dips in revenues have already occurred - mainly due to the recalculation of tax obligations by large taxpayers like Gazprom. The seasonality of the failure is confirmed by the fact that a month ago, based on the results of January-February, the situation looked quite prosperous - then the growth rate of income tax collection was 11% compared to the comparable period.

Vadim Visloguzov

Budgets again missed profits