A group of patriots suggested to Duma to start charging citizens and foreigners for crossing the Russian border. The new fee should bring much needed funds to develop the local travel industry, the initiative group proposed.
500 rubles to get out of Russia
This is the proposed fee to be charged from people wanting to leave the country, both foreigners and locals, according to the new initiative of the group of patriotic entrepreneurs Avanti in Russia, MK reported.
500 Russian rubles is about USD 7.50, according to the current exchange rate.
The group applied to the heads of the both houses of the Russian parliament, Valentina Matvienko and Vyacheslav Volodin, as well as to the chief of the tourism Russia Oleg Safonov.
The money obtained from this tax could be spent to develop the local travel industry and make it competitive on the international market.
The proposal, if implemented, would bring additional 35 billion rubles (USD 521 million) into the country’s budget, the initiative group calculated.
In the next 7 years the government of Russia plans to spend 422 billion RUB (USD 6.3 billion) to develop the travel and hospitality industry of Russia.
What do you think about the proposed tax on crossing of the border? Is it a good idea?
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Its not horribly expensive, and assuming the money will used as intended maybe its a good thing, however its just another tax. But then in following years the tax will increase, then taxes, fees start popping up on other transactions. Here in California for example our taxes are out of control and they never seem to ever have enought money. So be careful
Apparently Russia still has not learned from history the best ways to bring in revenue for it’s country. Want to bring in more revenue for money to improve infrastructure? Then make it easier to come in to Russia, not harder. Promote tourism, use the initial funds to market the beautiful places in Russia for the world’s travelers to visit. Then tax what they buy between entering and leaving. It works every single time it’s been tried. This method has been tried many times through history with only mediocre results at best.
In case of outlanders seems more locical for me if they built in this into something. Like airport check service, or what they want. The important thing is: do not make it too visible. If people know about it as separate tax that could be displeasing.
In Ukraine at the border there were a local fee (Chop, Zakarpattia Oblast), something like “railway platform useage fee” and built in the ticket price. Most people did not notice it.