Tax increases in Russia are inevitable, since the government pawns the price of oil at $ 40 per barrel. This was on Wednesday at the forum of the Moscow Stock Exchange in New York, said ex-Finance Minister, head of the Center for Strategic Research Alexei Kudrin.

According to him, with oil for 40 to reduce the federal budget, which is half filled with oil and gas dollars will be impossible.

"The increase in the tax burden is inevitable if the price in the budget is kept at $ 40 per barrel, and our revenue base is declining, not only because of a decrease in the price of a barrel of oil from $ 100 to $ 50, but it will continue to decline even under stable prices for oil, "- said Kudrin.

He added that, based on a negative outlook on "black gold," the authorities conclude that income is not enough to compensate for which it will be necessary to introduce new fees from the public and business.

"The price $ 40 per barrel of oil laid in the budget is tough," Kudrin said. The same level applies to the budget rule: all revenues received from oil prices above $ 40 go to reserves.

In fact, the government faces a choice: either to relax the budget rule by raising the price of oil, or to increase taxes, said the head of the CSR.

While the choice is made in favor of the second option, it follows from the draft budget for 2018-20, approved by the government and submitted to the State Duma in October.

In it additional charges from the population and business on 912 billion rubles are put. The Ministry of Finance intends to raise this amount in three years.

The first of the approved measures to tighten the tax nuts will be an increase in gasoline prices: excise rates for motor fuel will increase by 50 cents per liter from January 1 and another by the same number from July 1.

The next step - from July 2018 - may be the actual cancellation of duty-free import of goods purchased in foreign online stores. Now, without paying a fee, you can buy a thousand euros a month. The new limit can be only 20 dollars.

The payment for the use of forests was decided to be increased by 2.17 times in 2018, 2.38 times in 2019, and 2.62 times in 2020; a fee for the use of water bodies for generating electricity - 1.25 times, and "for the use of water surface of surface water bodies or parts thereof" - 10 times.

The rate of salvage on cars will grow by 15%, at the same time, a similar charge is collected for equipment in heavy engineering - 7%.

In seaports from 2019, an investment fee is introduced, which will increase the payment to port operators by 25%.

Operators of communications decided to raise the charge for the use of the radio-frequency spectrum by 25%. In addition, customs duties are imposed on machines and equipment that was not previously taxed.

The water tax rate has been decided to be raised 1.75 times next year, 2.01 times in 2019 and 2.31 times in 2020.