‘OAO VympelCom’s Yekaterinburg subsidiary keeps making increasingly more profit from rendering its services to the local customers, so the tax payments directed to Sverdlovsk Region’s budget have been increasing proportionally. This was also true of the year 2009, when the company’s profits soared against the previous year’s figures. Now the decrease in payments that the government officials mentioned at their latest meeting stems from the fact that the company has used its tax relief options in accordance with the property tax legislation,’ the company’s press officer informed UrBC.

The regional government’s business support committee declared recently that the local branch of OAO VympelCommunications (Beeline) and OAO MTS were directing less money to the regional budget.

‘VympelCom wants to make sure all Sverdlovsk Region dwellers are provided with good quality mobile and Internet connections, which is why the company is now expanding its 3G network in the region. This means we have been putting up some new objects, which, in its turn, results in an increase in the annual value of the branch’s assets. The law says that we are thus entitled to getting a respective tax relief. We applied for the privilege in 2008 and used the option in 2009, so this is why we actually did pay less in taxes,’ VympelCom explains.