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Strategies & Market Trends : Investment in Russia and Eastern Europe -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Real Man who wrote (362)	7/20/1998 3:00:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 1301

Vi, thanks for the Forbes article. Should be an interesting week with the IMF meeting and Thurs-Fri Gore visit. Another article.... Russian govt introduces new VAT proposals Monday July 20, 8:47 am Eastern Time MOSCOW, July 20 (Reuters) - Russia's government has issued a resolution introducing new value added tax proposals from August 1, Alexander Zhukov, head of the State Duma (lower house of parliament) budget committee, told reporters on Monday. The resolution, which followed the failure by the Duma to approve similar proposals last week, introduces a single VAT rate of 20 percent for a wider range of goods and calls for VAT to be paid on delivery instead of at the time of payment. Zhukov said the government had cut by about two thirds the list of foodstuffs which are subject to a lower 10 percent VAT rate. The new higher rate will be applied to meat, fruit, vegetables and fish. The list of children's goods, which also benefited from the lower rate, was halved by the government resolution signed on July 17, Zhukov said. Levying VAT on delivery is aimed at improving collection rates. Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko has vowed to use government resolutions and presidential decrees where possible to make up for a shortfall in revenues due to the Duma's failure to pass much of his package of anti-crisis measures. The VAT proposals were a major plank of the package, which the International Monetary Fund wants to see implemented as a condition for releasing billions of dollars in new credits for Russia. Related News Categories: international Help Copyright c 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon See our Important Disclaimers and Legal Information. Questions or Comments?

To: Real Man who wrote (362)	7/20/1998 3:03:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1301

Russia issues $6.4 bln bonds in t-bill swap scheme Monday July 20, 12:58 pm Eastern Time MOSCOW, July 20 (Reuters) - Russia issued $6.4 billion in long-term dollar-denominated bonds under a scheme to ease its short-term domestic debt burden, the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Monday. The scheme to convert GKO treasury bills resulted in the issue of $2.97 billion worth of bonds due in 2005 and a similar amount of bonds due in 2018 at a clearing spread of 940 basis points over benchmark U.S. treasuries. An additional $500 million of 2018 bonds was sold for cash, it said. The government had targeted to exchange at least $2 billion in the scheme, which was announced last week after talks with the International Monetary Fund on a multi-billion-dollar credit package for Russia. ''It was a good deal. It did come towards the high end of the range,'' Richard Gray, head of emerging markets at Bank of America in London, told Reuters Television, referring to issue volume. ''They pitched it probably about right,'' he added. The Finance Ministry said the latest maturity accepted for the converted t-bills was January 27, 1999. The ministry set the 2005 bond coupon at 8.75 percent with an issue price of 73.801 percent. The 2018 bond coupon was set at 11.0 percent and issue price at 73.858 percent. The exchange takes some pressure off the budget during the peak repayment period for t-bills this autumn. Related News Categories: international Help Copyright c 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon See our Important Disclaimers and Legal Information. Questions or Comments?