MOSCOW, May 12 (RAPSI) – Russia’s State Duma has passed a bill envisaging exemption of financial benefits individuals and self-employed entrepreneurs got as a result of the repayment holidays, during which they did not pay interest, of the income tax, a statement of the lower house of the parliament reads on Tuesday.

According to a proposed amendment to Russia’s Tax Code, the amounts of interest saved because of any repayment holidays introduced by laws in Russia are not to be defined as financial benefits and be subject to tax exemption.

The grace periods on settlement of debts are to be recognized as an exclusive measure of support of borrowers finding themselves in difficult financial situations, so it seems appropriate to extend certain provisions of the Tax Code on all such cases envisaged by law, including self-employed entrepreneurs and credit arrangements not secured by mortgages, the explanatory note to the bill reads.

The authors of the document, among them Chair of the lower house of the parliament Vyacheslav Volodin and his First Deputy Alexander Zhukov, Chair of the Budgetary Commission Andrey Makarov and a Federation Council member Nikolay Zhuravlev, believe that the adoption of the bill would be especially feasible in the current difficult economic situation.