vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #152 / Business / Reading article...

The krai government has signed legislation allowing a regional tax collecting organization to collect arrears from regional defaulters by “all possible means.”

The four largest defaulters in the region – Dalmoreprodukt, Dalzavod, Primorskugol and Uzhmorerybflot – have been targeted by the commission, which hopes to raise 95 billion rubles ($15.8 million) by the end of the year, which will control the operation, said German Zverev, head of the Krai Temporary Extraordinary Commission for Budget Discipline. Recovered taxes will pay teachers and doctors, he said.

The most prominent defaulter on the commission’s list is fishing company Dalmoreprodukt, which owes 81 billion rubles ($13.7 million) to the state pension fund and 15 billion rubles ($2.54 million) to the state medical insurance fund.

Dalmoreprodukt has not paid its debts because 98 percent of its revenue is received in non-monetary forms, usually in barters, Zverev said.

The commission has already bound Dalmoreprodukt to reduce non-monetary income by offering incentives for customers to use cash, or by putting limits on barter deals, he said.

Zverev was confident in Dalmoreprodukt’s prospects, citing skilled high-level staff who would be able to collect over 280 billion ($46 million) rubles the company itself is owed from various affiliates and daughter companies.

The second company on the list, Uzhmorerybflot, is plagued by bad management, and as a result the commission hopes to install a new external manager in order to repay over 26.4 billion rubles ($4.4 million) in debt, Zverev said.

Primorskugol and Dalzavod owe a 329 billion rubles ($54.3 million) to federal, krai, and city coffers, as well as medical insurance and pension funds.

But Zverev indicated that these debts weren’t as daunting as they first looked, because the companies would most likely work out a system of non-payment to balance their books.

For example, seventy percent of Dalzavod’s debts are unpaid because the Ministry of Defense has not reimbursed the company for state contracts.