James Allen News Center

The Yakutian regional parliament has approved a bill that proposes amendments to Russia`s tax code concerning the payment of taxes on diamond mining. Drafted by Yakutia`s Finance Ministry, the bill proposes to amend Articles 340 and 342 of the second part of the Tax Code. The tax base itself is up for change. Currently, diamond-mining companies pay taxes based on the initial assessment of the mined diamonds. Authorities believe the taxes should be based instead on the actual realized price of the rough diamonds. The realized price of the diamonds over the past three years has been consistently 20-30 percent higher than the initial estimate of the mined stones. Tax revenue from diamond mining could be increased by tens of millions of dollars as a result of the amendments.