Russia to clamp down on barter deals .
MOSCOW 1996-08-23
Russian officials , keen to cut capital flight , will adopt tight measures to cut barter deals in foreign trade to a minimum , a customs official said on Friday .
" We have always been concerned about barter deals with other countries , viewing them as a disguised kind of capital flight from Russia , " Marina Volkova , deputy head of the currency department at the State Customs Committee , told Reuters .
Volkova said last year goods had been exported under many Russian barter deals , with nothing imported in return .
She said the cost of such unimported goods was $ 1.10 billion in 1995 .
Barter deals were worth $ 4.9 billion last year , or about eight percent of all Russian exports estimated at $ 61.5 billion , she said .
" The cost of exported goods is too often understated , so the actual share of barter deals in Russian exports and the amount of unimported goods may be even higher , " Volkova said .
A few days ago Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree on state regulation of foreign barter deals , and Volkova said this " could substantially improve the situation " .
In line with the decree , which will come into force on November 1 , all Russian barter traders will be obliged to import goods worth the cost of their exports within 180 days .
" If traders are late , they will have to pay fines worth the cost of their exported goods , " Volkova said .
Understating the cost of exported goods could still be a loophole for barter dealers , but Volkova said the authorities are currently " tackling the technicalities of the issue " .
Barter has always been a feature of the Soviet Union 's foreign trade , but Yeltsin 's decrees liberalising foreign trade in 1991-1992 has given barter a new impetus .
A few years ago , barter deals accounted for up to 25-30 percent of Russian exports because " thousands ( of ) trade companies which popped up preferred barter in the absence of reliable Russian banks and money transfer systems " , Volkova said .
" Now many Russian banks are strong and can make various sorts of money tranfers , while incompetent traders are being ousted by more experienced ones .
But the current share of barter deals in Russian exports is still high , " she said .
-- Dmitry Solovyov , Moscow Newsroom , +7095 941 8520