MOSCOW, May 21 (RAPSI) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a bill on 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, into law. The document is published on the official website of legal information.

According to the 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 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, believed that the adoption of the bill would be especially feasible in the current difficult economic situation.

The State Duma passed the initiative on May 12; the Federation Council approved it on May 20.