Chechen authorities refute introduction of livestock and poultry tax

The authorities of the Chechen Republic have officially announced that the rumours about introduction of taxation of domestic animals and poultry have nothing to do with reality. The efforts of local administrations who make house-by-house visits and register livestock and poultry are explained only by the intention of the authorities to have a "clear idea about the population of privately owned animals."

This was the explanation given by Abubakar Edelgeriev, Minister of Agriculture of the Chechen Republic. "Domestic animals are registered with the aim to create a truthful statistical database giving us a clear idea about the available livestock and poultry. We need it, first of all, for regulating the situation in the home consumer market. Secondly, for defining the scale of vaccination aimed at avoiding any spread of animal diseases. Taxes are out of this list," Mr Edelgeriev said on March 1.

Speaker of the Chechen Parliament Dukvakha Abdurahmanov said, in his turn, that the Parliament did not pass any laws on livestock and poultry taxes.

The situation was also commented on by Islam Vazarkhanov, head of the Department for Chechnya of the Federal Tax Service of Russia: "Currently, we have three forms of taxes and dues - federal, regional and local ones. Neither the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, nor the laws of the subjects of the Federation and no statutory acts of municipalities ever introduced any taxes on domestic animals. Thus, any speculations to this end are groundless," the local taxation boss said.

Nevertheless, as reported by the head of a local human rights organization, who preferred to remain anonymous, the rumours about the attempts of local authorities to enforce taxes on animals are not unreasonable.

"Residents of different districts, from the Nauri to the Kurchaloy ones, have complained that they had been asked to pay taxes on their animals," the source told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

He does not exclude that the authorities have hastened to give up their idea of a new tax because of the broad public resonance.