MOSCOW, January 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian government has postponed from February 1 to November 1, 2007 the deadline by which alcohol producers and sellers will have to submit data to the Unified State Automated Information System, the government's press service said Thursday.

The system will receive data from special counters measuring the volume of products and their alcoholic content. Such counters must be installed at all companies producing and selling alcohol, except retailers, otherwise they will not be allowed to operate.

Companies were expected to have installed the counters by February 1, 2007, but the system was deemed not yet ready.

On January 15, the Finance Ministry proposed that the deadline be postponed until June 1, or even November 1, in order not to paralyze the Russian beverages industry.

But a source in the Finance Ministry told RIA Novosti earlier that the ministry supported the Federal Tax Service's decision to begin suspending the licenses of companies that fail to install the counters.

He said the companies had enough time to do so, as the government signed the measure in July 2006.