The Bank of Russia has instructed national lending institutions to charge transfers from corporate accounts to private accounts in case such monthly transfers amount to RUR 150K ($2,250) a month, The Bell reports.
The threshold is at the moment RUR 300K (double of the amount). The megaregulator intends to tighten its requirements to be able to effectively shut down dubious mechanisms and ways of cashing in funds. According to the Bank of Russia, such transfers are means of tax avoidance.
“Charging such transactions is due to the fact these transfers to private accounts are often intermediary operations for illegal monetization by shell companies”, Alfa-Bank media office notes.
Sberbank, the national leader in banking, is certain no such recommendations have been received from the national regulator.
The amount of the charge to be imposed by the banks, has not been identified yet, but Avangard Bank has already imposed a 1% charge on any transfers. Other credit institutions may well introduce identical charges.