Environmental tax instead of fees for negative impact on the environment may be adopted in the Russian Federation

The fee for the negative impact on the environment can be converted into an environmental tax, follows from the draft amendments of the Ministry of Finance to the Tax code of the Russian Federation.

The document is designed to be included in the code of non-tax payments of a quasi-tax nature, inform RIA Novosti with reference to the explanatory note to the document, which is posted on the portal of draft legal regulations. The Finance Ministry has previously announced plans to conduct an analysis of existing non-tax payments. Those of them that have signs of taxes and fees are supposed to be regulated within the tax code, and for the rest to form a closed list and establish common rules of regulation within the framework of separate legislation.

Currently, the rules on payment for negative impact on the environment are enshrined in the law on environmental protection. Its size is calculated based on the volume or mass of pollutant emissions.

The analysis of the dynamics of the proceeds of such fees to the budget system of the Russian Federation testifies to low efficiency of collecting the non-tax payment, according to the Ministry of Finance. This, in his opinion, creates the need to Finance state environmental programs at the expense of other revenues of the Federal and regional budgets. In a number of countries, payments for environmental pollution are levied in the form of a tax payment, the note says.

“The introduction of the environmental tax is justified by the need to provide financial support for the activities of the government of the Russian Federation related to the state policy in the field of ecology, aimed at ensuring the conditions for the implementation of the constitutional right to a favorable environment by citizens,” the explanatory note says.

The document proposes to fix the tax rates for the release of various substances into the air, discharges into water bodies, for the disposal of production and consumption waste according to their hazard class. The law, if adopted, will enter into force on January 1, 2020.