The Ministry of Finance will assess the feasibility of granting the regions the right to introduce a tourist tax

The government questioned the advisability of the resort fee – the daily contribution of tourists to the regional budget, intended to upgrade the hospitality infrastructure. As a source close to the Cabinet told Vedomosti, the Ministry of Finance is going to evaluate the effectiveness of this quasi-tax in 2023–2024. The information was confirmed by another interlocutor familiar with the plans of the department. According to them, the introduction of the fee, which has been launched in test mode in three regions so far and will begin to operate in St. Petersburg on August 1, leads to higher prices for services, which contradicts the government’s targeted efforts to reduce the burden on the industry (last year the authorities zeroed out VAT for hotels and tour operators). Moreover, it is also quite difficult to control the target nature of payments, one of the sources said. Based on the results of the analysis, a conclusion will be made on whether it is necessary to give the regions the right to introduce a fee, whether to keep in principle a tool for the construction and modernization of tourism infrastructure and in what form.

As a source close to the government explained to Vedomosti, it is already clear that the resort fee is an ineffective tool in terms of both administration (hotels collect money from tourists) and transparency (avoidance of paying it is possible).