De-dollarization plan does not contain restrictive measures "Finance Ministry"

The plan to de-dollarize the Russian economy does not contain restrictive measures and is aimed only at stimulating the use of the ruble, Deputy Minister of Finance Alexey Moiseev told reporters on Wednesday.

"I spoke specifically to reassure the market that there are no restrictive measures, only the ones to stimulate the use of the ruble. Repatriation of foreign exchange earnings and similar measures. We are talking about promoting settlements in ruble and we do not offer any restrictions on anything," Moiseev said, commenting on the plan to de-dollarize the Russian economy.

Moiseev said earlier that the Finance Ministry expects that the plan to de-dollarize the Russian economy will be approved before the end of the year. "I think it will be approved by the instructions of Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister," he said. "I hope even earlier than that," Moiseev added, answering a question on whether the measures will be approved by the end of the year.

According to him, the Finance Ministry also expects that after approval the document will be made public. Earlier, answering a question about possible publication of the plan, Moiseev said that the document was "for official use only".

"It was done for the development stage, so that various versions of it would not circulate. I expect that the plan will be made public. This is not our decision, but the government’s, however I frankly do not see any secret information in it," he said, adding that the project is "a general plan for motivating economic agents to increase the share of settlements in rubles."

Moiseev told reporters on Monday that the plan for de-dollarization of the national economy does not contain a clause regarding a potential limiting of currency lending for companies.

Higher risks ratios are planned to be set for currency loans of companies not having a sufficient amount of export revenues, prompting banks to create extra provisions, the Izvestiya newspaper reported earlier. According to the newspaper, the relevant paragraph is in the de-dollarization plan for the Russian economy.

"No, I know nothing about that. I know only that the Central Bank, as you are aware, significantly increased ratios for currency assets of banks," Moiseev said. This is not in the de-dollarization plan, he added.

The de-dollarization plan for the Russian economy was prepared and presented to the government in early October. The document contains tax preferences for companies using ruble settlements, including accelerated VAT refund, First Deputy Prime Minister Anton Siluanov said earlier.