Ministry of Finance: part of insurance premiums should be shifted from enterprises to citizens

The head of the Ministry of Finance Anton Siluanov said that he considers it appropriate to shift the payment of some insurance premiums from enterprises to citizens. This was reported by "Vedomosti". Due to this, the official explained, the tax burden on the business may be reduced.

"Now the company pays insurance premiums for employees, forms pension savings for the population, contributions to the compulsory medical insurance fund, to the social insurance fund," said Siluanov. Meanwhile, throughout the world, he added, the business pays to the budget only about half of the corresponding fees, while citizens list the other half.

To redistribute the load, according to the design of the official, it is necessary to gradually - starting with 2-4 percentage points. “To reduce, for example, to 26 percent (the load on employers who now pay insurance premiums in the amount of about 30 percent. - Ed.) And transfer 4 percent to citizens,” he explained.

You can start the implementation of this proposal, the minister added, after 2018.

The representative of the Ministry of Finance told the publication that so far the idea of ​​Siluanov was not discussed with the government, so it is not known when it will be adopted, as well as in what terms and in what volumes it will begin to be embodied. The representative of the First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, for his part, noticed that so far there were no such proposals in the apparatus of his boss.

A member of the expert economic group Alexander Suslin told the newspaper that the implementation of the idea of ​​the Ministry of Finance would entail an increase - possibly significant - the load on citizens, and therefore - a decrease in their real income and a decrease in consumption. Thus, the expert concluded, an additional blow to the fading economic growth will be inflicted. Denis Shchekin from the Law Firm "Shchekin and Partners" predicted that salaries in this case would begin to go into the shadow.

Since 2011, enterprises transfer 30.2 percent of annual salaries that do not exceed one and a half average salaries around the country. 22 percent go to the Pension Fund, 5.1 percent - to the compulsory medical insurance fund, 3.1 percent to the Social Insurance Fund. From salaries exceeding 52 thousand rubles per month, employers pay an additional 10 percent to the Pension Fund.