Russia will soon have a special fund for the construction of roads, the poor quality of which is one of the country's perennial problems, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Tuesday.
"Yesterday the transport minister and I presented our proposals to the president, and he approved them. The president decided to establish a Federal Road Fund aimed at raising funds for road construction," Kudrin said.
Kudrin previously said the Federal Road Fund will amount to 377 billion rubles ($12.6 bln) in 2011, 348 billion rubles in 2012 and 408 billion rubles in 2013.
The government had worked out "a very serious and ambitious road construction program" before the global financial crisis, when gross domestic product growth was expected to reach 5-7 percent, he said. The government now expects GDP to recover to pre-crisis levels only in 2012.
"The road construction issue has become urgent, because previous economic forecasts and revenues are no longer there, but we still have to build roads," Kudrin said.
The basis of the transportation tax, now used for road repairs and construction, will be halved from 2011 and regional authorities will set its level depending on the type of car. At the same time the petroleum, oil and lubricants excise tax will rise by one ruble per liter a year for three years from 2011.
"The transportation tax is not enough. We are taking such steps to normalize the quality of federal roads and to raise it," Kudrin said, adding that he considered the excise increase three times more efficient than the transportation tax.
"Is it an adequate measure? I think it is. The more you drive, the more you pay. Otherwise, we'll lose the country's key traffic arteries necessary for further economic growth," he said.
MOSCOW, July 27 (RIA Novosti)
