AGAIN - LUXURY?
“Two projects are directed against conspicuous consumption. They seem to say to our nouveau riche people: either invest in a real business, or fork out for your ostentatious wealth in the midst of poverty.”
"… The bill" On the tax on certain types of vehicles "is struggling with unproductive (which, excuse me? - E. V.) luxury by introducing a" feed "on equipment with particularly powerful motors. Note that this" feed " It is directed primarily against imported "jeeps", long "Cadillacs" and other attributes of a cool life that are appropriate in a country tormented by a crisis just like buying borzoi dogs during the time of famine."
"Russian newspaper"
The government approved two bills directly related to motorists: “On excise taxes” and “On tax on certain types of vehicles”. The essence of the first is to levy high-octane gasoline on excise at an increased rate. The excise tax on fuel with an octane rating of more than 93 will increase from 370 to 450 rubles per ton. A liter AI-95 will become more expensive "only" by 8 cents. It is estimated that this will give the budget 300 million rubles annually.
The draft law "On the tax on certain types of vehicles" outlines more sensitive requisitions: for owners of imported motorcycles with an engine capacity of more than 500 cm - annually pay to the treasury a ruble for a "cube". Owners of imported cars with engine displacement from 2000 to 3000 smz will be obliged to deduct to the state 1 ruble 20 kopecks per “cube”. Well, if the engine displacement is even greater, the power owes 1 ruble 80 kopecks per cubic centimeter of displacement. It is expected that this will bring up to two billion rubles annually to the budgets of the Center and the regions.
To squeeze the rich is a measure traditionally approved in Russia. But the question is: will the thick bourgeois sides really be plucked, and will the budget really receive such support?
Statistics show that the majority of foreign cars imported into the country are used, often far from new. A considerable share - with a large engine capacity. This is understandable: it has a solid resource, even a ten-year-old car with a two-three-liter engine runs for more than a year and not two - at least five years. Such cars cost, as a rule, inexpensively.
Motorists, residents of the Far East and Siberia, may suffer more from the planned measures than others. Indeed, east of Irkutsk, domestic cars are almost not sold (even our car factories admit this) - too expensive delivery makes their purchase unprofitable. They drive mainly foreign cars there, and not in order to brazenly demonstrate their wealth, but because Japanese used cars are very cheap: even for three thousand dollars you can buy a decent car. We emphasize: in the East, in Siberia, and in the center of Russia, they buy it not for idle pleasure (for some reason, this government only considers the car a luxury - for everyone except itself), but for survival in the current conditions. Someone moonlighting as a cab, someone is engaged in small business, someone is growing vegetables on a plot: without a car, all this is impossible! Cars, mind you, are often used, but reliable (that is, with a large engine capacity). It will be difficult for poor owners to pay a minimum of 2, 400 rubles a year to pay off the government that credited them with wealth. Many people will have to “hitch” their four-wheeled breadwinners, their already low standard of living will drop, and the budget will not receive the money that the authorities are counting on. (By the way, cars with a large engine capacity, as a rule, “eat” a lot of gasoline - the budget will lose money for it, too.)
The excise tax on high-octane gasoline, of course, does not so painfully hit the pockets of ordinary car owners. But the meaning of increasing it is also incomprehensible: it is the cleanest fuel, people around the world are fighting for clean air, but here …
The measures proposed by the government pursue only one goal: to patch up budget holes in any way - today, now, and then what will come of it all, there is no time to think. As if the experience of recent years had already been forgotten, when the tax on poultry left the village without hens and geese, and the "collection" from fruit trees devastated the gardens. The consequences of those decisions we reaped for a long time. The consequences of the present are yet to come.
So maybe it's better to foresee them and avoid them by adopting other laws - stimulating business activity, allowing honest working people to earn money and pay income taxes? Probably, this is what we should strive for and protect motorists - the most active, most hardworking and capable part of society. Measures such as those proposed can only lead to increased tensions in society, new attempts to circumvent laws in order to avoid extortion, and not to boost the country's economy.
