Medvedev urged to carefully study the experience of introducing a resort fee

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on June 13 urged to carefully study the experience of introducing the resort fee and analyze the practice of its collection in the pilot regions.
"There are probably some risks that need to be analyzed, including - whether this resort fee will be lifted for people, so that people decide to go if they are exacting such money from them," the prime minister said. "But the size of these funds should be determined at the regional level, and this is the meaning of the bill that is now moving forward."
Medvedev reminded that the draft law envisages the introduction of collection in several pilot regions, including in the Kuban, Crimea and Stavropol Territory.
"We need to see how this bill, if it is finally adopted in this version, will function, see what decisions the regions will take ... - they will answer in this case what consequences this will create for the resort potential. Here you can not, as they say, bend the stick, "- said the head of government.
Medvedev added that the resort fee exists in many countries and brings hundreds of millions of dollars. Such a collection existed in the USSR and was equal to one ruble, which was levied upon the arrival of a person at a resort. Medvedev noted that many regions consider it necessary to introduce a resort fee, the funds from which will be used to finance the development of the healthcare system, sanatorium and resort complex in the regions.
Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Veniamin Kondratyev August 26, 2016 at a meeting of the State Council Presidium on the development of tourism proposed to introduce a resort fee mechanism, and thus received funds to send to local budgets. Mayor of Gelendzhik Victor Khrestin supported the initiative, calling the introduction of resort collection a necessary measure. The head of Sochi, Anatoly Pakhomov, said on May 19 that the proceeds from the resort fee should be spent on improving the level of security.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin in September 2016 instructed the government to introduce a resort fee until March 2017. Minister of the Russian Federation for the North Caucasus, Lev Kuznetsov, October 13, 2016 proposed to test the resort fee in five regions of Russia: in the Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories, the Crimea, Sevastopol and the Altai.
Kondratiev in December 2016, told who and how will pay the resort fee and whether its impact on the flow of tourists. He said that in the province they plan to determine the resort fee as a tax payment. In April, the introduction of the resort collection in the Kuban decided to postpone for 2018.
In April 2017, the Government of the Russian Federation approved a bill providing for the introduction of a resort gathering in the Crimea, Krasnodar, Stavropol and Altai regions. Now it is under consideration in the State Duma.