A draft law has been submitted to the State Duma which provides for the introduction of a catering tax of 1% of each check in restaurants, bars and nightclubs in favor of participants in the military operation in Ukraine and their families. The authors of the document were deputies of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Mikhail Matveev and Vyacheslav Markhaev, should from the database of the lower house of parliament.
According to the initiative of the communists, visitors will have to pay the fee, and establishments will send the funds received to the state fund to support participants in the military operation “Defenders of the Fatherland”. It is assumed that the transfer of the fee to the current account of a restaurant, bar or nightclub, and then to the budget, will not be subject to bank commissions.
The decree on the creation of a state fund to support participants in the military operation was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in early April 2023. According to the document, the fund will exist at the expense of the budget, as well as contributions volunteers, donations and “other sources”.
The person responsible for collecting and transferring funds, according to the document, will be the operator – a legal entity or an individual entrepreneur who owns the institution. A government-authorized body should introduce a register of catering fee operators, the bill says.
According to the promoters of the initiative, the collection of a 1% catering tax will not provoke a negative public outcry from visitors, because it is an insignificant part of the bill, but will create an effect positive throughout the country by helping the fighters in Ukraine.
Mikhail Matveev has announced his intention to submit a draft law on “a kind of tax on pleasure” to the State Duma on May 12. In his telegram channel he also writing that 1% of the check “is not a hefty markup, but a huge sum across the country”.
“Foreign nationals and Ukrainians will find themselves in a difficult situation: if you go to cafes and restaurants, you are helping the Russian army. If you don’t want to, you cook dumplings in the kitchen,” the MP noted.
However, Telegram users left many outraged comments on his post. “Do people mind relaxing in restaurants with your CBO?” So what? Why not? <…> Only 10 rubles per thousand. What is the cry? Who was robbed? Who was dispossessed? What NEPman?” Matveev responded to criticism.
Questions on the initiative of the parliamentarian was born and the head of the Council under the Russian Presidency for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights (HRC) Valery Fadeev. According to him, the introduction of the so-called entertainment tax “will incite millions of Russians against the state”.
“Is it vicious to go to a cafe?” It’s wrong, it’s not possible. Someone has an idea that only the rich go to cafes – the lion’s share of people in at least big cities go to cafes. There is no need to pit millions (of people) of the middle class against the state,” Fadeev said.
In the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia, the idea of ​​taking a percentage of the bill in a restaurant called strange and unreasonable. Federation President Igor Bukharov expressed doubts about the approval of the initiative. According to him, many restaurateurs even without this tax help participants in the military operation, buy and send them uniforms and food.
“It’s very strange. So if you take buses, pay a percentage for that too? You can walk on foot!” Bukharov said in a conversation with NTV.
In addition, the Chairman of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia reminded MP Matveev of Vladimir Lenin’s article “The Great Beginning” from 1919. He spoke about public canteens, a place where a person is freed from work routine in the kitchen. “There, Lenin just wrote that a woman should be freed, given the opportunity to realize herself, and if this comrade is a deputy of the Communist Party, then he should remember this,” he concluded.
Member of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and War Veterans Svetlana Bessarab in an interview with Lenta.ru appointed “a tax on entertainment” to help fighters in Ukraine “an extreme solution for companies, because it turns out that this type of economic activity will be subject to additional taxation”.
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