Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich has not ruled out the possibility of changes in the Russian tax system, but noted that any changes should not be major ones, TASS news agency reports.

“But all of this [changes in the tax system] would be in small amounts with no revolutionary changes – I don’t think we could expect plus or minus 10%. But there could definitely be small changes”, he said.

Dvorkovich also proposed lowering the tax rates that are administered more poorly and increasing the ones that are administered better as part of the discussion of changes in the Russian tax system.

He noted that reducing social contributions to 22% would change the insurance system and require transfers to insurance social funds from the budget.

“Above all, we want to understand how the pension and social medical insurance system would be built in this case because if rates are significantly lower, for instance 22%, then we can clearly forget about the word ‘insurance’. At such a rate, we won’t physically have enough money for actual insurance. We would simply have to transfer money from the budget to the relevant funds from other taxes, which in this case would have to be a bit higher”, he said.

Dvorkovich noted that no mistakes should be made in this regard since the Ministry of Finance’s proposal to increase VAT to 22% and reduce the rate of maximum social payments to funds to 22% not only concerns the tax system, but the social policy as a whole.

“Perhaps we need to take a look at the same rate [as the personal income tax] of 13% and 14% and do that, or maybe not. But I just want to hold a discourse. I don’t have any final position on this issue, nor does almost anyone in the government”, he said.

The Ministry of Finance previously came up with a proposal to reduce social contributions to 22% from the current 30% while increasing VAT to 22% from 18%.