Moscow, July 31 (RFE/RL) -- Russian Presidential adviser Alexander Livshits says measures to improve tax collections currently being developed should bring in an additional 50 trillion rubles in 1996.
Interfax quotes Livshits as saying that implementation will be "quite difficult" because failure to enforce earlier fiscal legislation went on too long and resistance to tax collections now "will be extremely stiff."
Livshits says the measures will be given final approval "in a matter of days" and will include a requirement that business accounts be registered with the tax authorities before they can be activated.
In Washington, International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials are discussing the measures Moscow needs to take to get tax revenues up. Experts say tax collections in Russia are running as much as 50 percent behind projections and that widespread tax avoidance is hurting attempts to keep the budget deficit under control.
An IMF review team is to return to Moscow soon to complete its July analysis of Russia's economic situation. That review must be approved by the fund's board, which has delayed this month's drawing of around $300 million by Russia.