Russian mobile co’s huge tax bill
p2pnet.net News:- Russia’s Federal Tax Service has presented the country’s second largest mobile operator VimpelCom with tax claims for 2001. The total amount of claims including fines and penalties is 4.4 billion rubles ($157 million).
VimpelCom is traded on the NY Stock Exchange as VIP, and is therefore legally required to disclose any such claims to shareholders.
While VimpelCom may seem a strange candidate to follow in Yukos’ wake, the reality is that the company is more than just a random candidate for nationalization. Telecommunications is the fastest growing sector of the Russian and global economy, and it does not depend on such finite resources as fossil fuel reserves.
With state-owned Gazprom looking the most likely contender to win the auction of Yukos’ main production unit, Yuganskneftegaz, on Dec. 19, talk of re-nationalizing the oil major has been rife.
VimpelCom could also have been chosen as the next target for back tax claims because one of its major shareholders, Alfa Group, has tried to acquire a large stake in Russia’s third largest operator MegaFon. MegaFon is known to be controlled by the St. Petersburg “siloviki” circle, and the tax claim against VimpelCom may be an attempt to exact revenge on Alfa.
MosNews, December 3, 2004
