President Boris Yeltsin attacked Russia's stubborn tax-collection problem yesterday, firing the country's leading tax official and announcing the government's strategy to spur revenue growth.
The plan won immediate praise from the International Monetary Fund, which already supports Russian economic reforms with a #6000m lending programme and has pressed for tax collections to be stepped up.
Officials of the IMF said yesterday they would recommend release of a delayed #424m loan installment to Russia.
The country's markets were relatively steady for a second straight day yesterday, and the IMF said again that it was not discussing a new package aimed at the current crisis.
''As for now, I think the government's statement and measures will stabilise markets,'' John Odling-Smee, a senior IMF official, said.
The government's biggest fear is that the rouble will collapse, forcing prices up. The rouble has come under great pressure, but the Central Bank has supported the currency and it has been trading in recent weeks between 6.1 and 6.2 to the dollar.
Fund officials said again yesterday that no bailout package was in the offing. Investors are apparently hoping for aid from Western governments, or a package of loans from large Western commercial banks.
The IMF said it believed that ''a (currency) devaluation can and should be avoided'' and also that it expected Russian markets to stabilise soon.
Yeltsin, meanwhile, continued the confidence-building campaign he launched earlier in the week. His spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said that in a Thursday night telephone call with Yeltsin, US President Bill Clinton had warmly supported the steps taken so far to staunch the financial crisis.
One of Yeltsin's first moves yesterday was to fire Alexander Pochinek from the helm of Russia's tax service and replace him with former Finance Minister Boris Fyodorov. He also signed a decree easing the procedure for tax inspectors to seize property from tax debtors.
Premier Sergei Kiriyenko's Cabinet said that the spending programme Yeltsin announced on Tuesday, cutting budget expenditures by #4300m, would be fully implemented this year.
The Cabinet also announced that after Russia's battered markets stabilised, the government would accelerate privatisation of state companies and recoup at least #1500m for the state budget.
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