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Russian businesses welcome presidential initiatives with some reservations

ALEXANDROVA Lyudmila

In a chorus of approval for Vladimir Putin annual message to the Federal Assembly one cannot but hear some important "ifs" and "buts"

MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. Russian businesses are basically enthusiastic over the initiatives President Vladimir Putin announced in his annual message to the Federal Assembly on December 4 with the aim to make life easier for private enterprise. However, in this chorus of approval one cannot but hear some important "ifs" and "buts". Small wonder, though. In the past, the authorities and businesses failed to understand each other too often.

High on the list of the presidential initiatives are an end to redundantly scrupulous, endless inspections of businesses, a three-year suspension of all checks for small businesses with an impeccable record of operation during the previous three years, a two-year tax break for newly-established businesses, a four-year freeze on changes to taxation rules, and an amnesty for the repatriation of offshore capital. It is the predictability of tax and other fiscal policies that the business community has demanded from the authorities for years.

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