BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2018/37
President Putin's 2018 May Decree included the goal of raising the investment-to-GDP ratio to 25 % by 2024. Deputy finance minister Andrei Ivanov has since clarified that Russia needs about 21 trillion rubles (300 billion dollars) in investment, and that companies should contribute about 8 trillion rubles of that amount. A wide variety of proposals have been made concerning the funding and targeting of this additional investment. Last month saw the publication of "Belousov's list" of 14 large industrial firms to be taxed on windfall profits totalling about 500 billion rubles. The government ultimately balked on capture of those profits, however, and instead the listed firms agreed to invest in projects that benefit society. The identification of such projects will involve the joint cooperation of the finance ministry, the presidential administration, the contributing firms and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP).
Russia has no shortage of potential investment targets. Media reports note, for example, that the price tag for Russia's revised national digitalisation programme for 2019–2024 has climbed to around 1.2 trillion rubles and that cost of the economic development ministry's infrastructure programme now stands at around 7 trillion rubles. Officials hope that both efforts will be partly funded out of the federal budget and partly by corporations, including those in the private sector. In addition, firms face added costs in complying with new rules on ID coding of goods and data storage in compliance with the Yarovaya anti-terrorism amendments.
The finance ministry has proposed encouraging private investment through e.g. development of various financing instruments and reforming investment agreement practices. Under the latest proposal, large investment projects requiring joint commitments from the parties would be allowed to lock in their tax treatment for up to 12 years.