‘Starting January 1, 2006 Tagilvodka JSC does not produce anything due to the absence of excise labels demanded by the amendments to the State Regulation of Ethyl Alcohol, Strong Liquor and Spirit-Based Drink Production and Turnover Act. The new bill also demands that the enterprise install some equipment in order to place the bar code onto the labels, but no equipment has been delivered so far,’ Accountant General of Tagilvodka JSC Oleg Silin said.

As Mr Silin reports, the winery will not start operating again until February 1, which makes the budgets incur losses of 500,000 to 600,000 RUR daily.

‘The plant was fully operating in December, so there should be enough produce to last until mid-February. Yet it is rather puzzling why the bill was passed without the legislature establishment thinking through the ways of its implementation. It is the absence of the labels that caused the break in the winery operation, for the enterprise met all of the other legal requirements,’ Mr Silin said.