Tax increase right before World Cup
The 2018 FIFA World Cup, which started last Thursday in Russia, is the main topic of discussion in the country. The authorities are making efforts to ensure that the tournament concludes without any negative developments such as terrorist attacks or hooliganism.
The economic benefit of the event for Russia, which has spent about $15 billion on the cup preparations, will be also be discussed for a while.
In order not to be exposed to reactions or protests, an important decision was taken by the Russian government on the opening day of the World Cup.
The Russian government is preparing to raise the value added tax (VAT) rate and retirement age in the country in order to alleviate the pressure on the budget.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting in capital Moscow, Prime Minister Dimitriy Medvedev said that the labor market in the country was getting smaller and the pressure on the budget had to be mitigated.
'Starting from next year, the VAT rate will increase from 18 percent to 20 percent. The retirement age will also be gradually increased from 60 to 65 for men and from 55 to 63 for women, starting from next year,' Medvedev said.
Russia plans to raise 2 trillion rubles (about $32 billion) in additional VAT within the next six years.
-Russia preparing for OPEC meeting
The upcoming meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC producers in Vienna this week is another important topic for the country. It has been alleged that Moscow would propose to increase oil production quotas.
Local news agency RIA Novosti reported last week that Russia assessed various scenarios for the two-day meeting which is scheduled to begin on Friday.
It pointed out that the balance of oil markets was moving at a positive level, but warned of a risk of overheating of the markets in some countries such as Venezuela and Iran if the production continued to fall.
According to the report, Russia will propose to increase production quotas at the meeting.
Russia had pledged to reduce its daily oil production of 11.24 million barrels by 300,000 barrels a day, in accordance with the production quota agreement reached with OPEC in October 2016.