In the course of the forum “Russia is calling”, arranged by VTB Capital, the President of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin stated that Russia comes to grips to become the first economy in Europe and the fifth in the world by the volume of GDP.

According to OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), in 2012 volume of GDP in Russia at parity of purchasing power amounted to 3,373 trillion dollars, whereas GDP in Germany amounted to 3,378 trillion dollars. Russia’s GDP per capita and size of consumption are comparable with the results of euro-zone countries, but in the eyes of the head of the State, there is other good news. Economy of the State is more than two times inferior to western European countries in labor efficiency. The President considers such disjuncture between consumption level and economic efficiency unsafe.

According to Vladimir Putin, present pace of economic growth doesn’t reduce underrun from leaders, but indicates temporary shutdown in economy, its one-sided structure and resource-based nature. And in order to improve efficiency, it is necessary to have the growth twice as much than present – at the level of 5-6%. It is possible only on condition of economy commitment to create qualitative jobs.

The President also noticed that one of the economic growth factors is liberalization of infrastructure. Today, in his opinion, expenses of infrastructure are insufficiently controlled. This happens not only owing to value detraction, but also as a result of bad primary calculation. The President recalled that the state is going to invest in infrastructure projects on a repayable and remuneration bases.

The most important key to growth of economic efficiency is improvement of business climate, continued Vladimir Putin. Unfortunately, not all the departments hold it as a priority. However, all the measures are to be implemented during two years. The country’s leader set a task to increase the total volume of investments in economy of the country till 25% of GDP in the near future, and by 2018 - till 27%. Moreover, he urged to develop non-primary export and assured that independently from external conditions and objective difficulties all the contemplated reforms would be implemented and prescribed vector to create strong economy would be saved.

In order to provide additional tax payments, legislator, following the international experience, added new article 74.1 «Bank guarantee» in The Tax Code of the Russian Federation by the Federal Law as of 23.07.2013 N 248-FZ. The article entered into force on 1st October 2013.

The meaning of innovation is quite transparent and economically reasonable: bank gives tax authorities the warranty for the fulfillment of tax obligations by a taxpayer. If the taxpayer fails the payment of all his taxes and penalties in due time, in accordance with the conditions, which were made between the bank and the taxpayer, bank undertakes to fulfill these obligations in full. The guarantee must be provided by the bank, which is included in the list of credit institutions, which meet the set requirements for acceptance of bank guarantees. Such list is carried by the Ministry of Finance of Russian Federation and is publicly available.

Prior to the introduction of the bank guarantee, the taxpayer for postponement of tax payments and guarantee of tax revenues could use the pledge of property, warranty. Besides penalties may be assessed on taxpayer, the operations on bank accounts may be suspended and property could be seized. Thus, bank guarantee will be the new tool of state policy for culture regulation and increase of providing the tax revenues to the treasury.

One of the main criterion, by which bank can enter the list of commissioners for adoption of a bank guarantee, will be the existence of own funds (capital) in amount of at least one billion RUB. Banks should also follow the mandatory standards of The Central Bank of the Russian Federation at all reported periods. Thereby, in this sphere will work large credit institutions and it is quite reasonable. After all if the bank loses its license, the taxpayer will be in a difficult situation because the State won’t get its taxes, moreover it will be connected by financial obligations with a bankrupt bank.

The economic effect for a businessman will be in the fact that bank guarantee will let him pay taxes in those periods when it isn't profitable to withdraw money from a turn, thereby slowing down the commercial process.

Information agency Credinform is preparing to release an independent index of banks financial stability, which will indicate the risk level of cooperation with credit agencies. The index will also consider the possibility of the credit institution to provide bank guarantees.