Russia seeks to speed up cutting VAT on gold

Russia’s finance ministry is seeking to speed up cutting VAT on investments in gold in part to support a Russian gold refiner that has been struggling after it was hit by US sanctions, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev told Reuters.

The ministry is awaiting approval by the government on the issue, which has been a matter of debate among Russian officials for years. “We are striving to cancel ( VAT) not only to increase the demand for domestic gold, although, of course, we are interested in filling (capacity of) refineries ... An additional reason is that some of them came under sanctions and thus lost the ‘good delivery’ status,” Moiseev said.

Washington imposed sanctions on Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg and other Russian tycoons, citing “malign activities” by Russia.