Firm secrets: Authorities want to gain access to tax trade secrets
The authorities can gain access to the tax secrecy of trade and suppliers to combat the surge in prices for goods from the food basket. The Federal Tax Service will share with the agencies data on the entire price formation chain — from wholesale to retail. A sharp increase in the cost was previously recorded for eggs, potatoes, and fish. The draft law of the Ministry of Industry and Trade should prevent such price spikes. The trade notes that it already provides all the information, and access to tax service data may lead to a leak of commercial data. Manufacturers say that trade margins on goods today can exceed the wholesale cost by two to three times. Whether the new measure will help regulate prices is in the Izvestia article.
Why do the authorities want to strengthen control over pricing
The Federal Tax Service will disclose to interested executive authorities commercial business information related to food basket products. We are talking about the formation of their value, transactions, amounts of income, expenses and profits of business entities, which today represent a tax secret. These may also include audit reports, consolidated financial statements, and other documents. A draft law allowing authorities to access this information has been prepared by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Izvestia has it).
The document defines the Federal Tax Service as the responsible body for providing the specified information. In agreement with the Ministry of Economic Development, the service will have to establish the procedure for providing this information. The government is given the authority to approve the list of goods in the food basket, which, if necessary, will be supplemented with new products, as well as to determine the list of executive authorities that will be given the right to receive the necessary information from the Federal Tax Service.
The document states that these are companies that trade, supply manufactured or purchased goods, and provide services included in the monthly calculation of the consumer price index in accordance with the official methodology of Rosstat.
A consumer basket is a set of food, non—food products and services that are needed to maintain a person's life at a certain level. Since 2021, the cost of the consumer basket has not been calculated, it is disconnected from the cost of living and serves as a statistical tool to help measure inflation and determine the poverty line. Food products include bread and pasta, flour, cereals, legumes, potatoes and other vegetables, fresh fruits, sugar and confectionery, meat and fish products, milk and dairy products, eggs, vegetable oil, margarine and other fats. Non—food products include medicines, clothing, shoes, personal hygiene products, household chemicals, cosmetics, furniture, etc. Services include everything that is used in everyday life and social life: communal services, transport, communications, hairdressers, and so on.
The draft law proposes amendments to Articles 5 and 20 of the law "On the Fundamentals of State Regulation of Trading Activities in the Russian Federation", which also imply amendments to Article 102, Part 1 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (Tax Code of the Russian Federation). According to the explanatory note, the document was developed in accordance with the government decree.
"In order to monitor prices at all stages of the movement of goods, recording values at each stage at which a jump in value is recorded, and in order to analyze the causes of price increases, interested federal executive authorities need access to a number of data that constitute a tax secret," the document says.
It also notes that now, according to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, any information about a taxpayer obtained by tax, investigative, customs authorities, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or a body of the state extra-budgetary fund is a tax secret. At the same time, it is established that the secret is not subject to disclosure by the above-mentioned authorities, except in cases provided for by law.
Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Industry and Trade with a request to explain the reasons for the development of the bill. The editorial board also sent requests to the government, the Federal Tax Service, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), and the Ministry of Agriculture with a request to comment on the initiative.
Pros and cons of tax secrecy disclosure
Over the past two years, the largest price increases among products have been recorded for eggs, potatoes, and fish. Thus, poultry products began to rise sharply in 2023, increasing to 40% over the year. The situation was stabilized only after the wider opening of supplies of imported products. The rapid rise in potato prices began immediately after harvesting the vegetable in 2024. According to Rosstat and the Central Bank, the retail price of vegetables increased by 92% last year. It was also possible to change the situation by opening imports and harvesting a new crop.
The average consumer price of herring, the most popular fish in Russia, as previously reported by Izvestia, increased by 28% compared to a year earlier. At the same time, its decrease by 14% was recorded in wholesale.
Retailers' margins today can be two or three times higher than the cost of goods in wholesale, Alexey Krasilnikov, executive director of the Potato and Vegetable Market Participants Union (Potato Union), told Izvestia. At the same time, the profitability of manufacturers is decreasing, and the planting area is decreasing, he added.
— We haven't seen the bill itself yet, but its purpose is clear. Potatoes and vegetables have always been under special control of the authorities, as one of the key elements of the grocery basket. Against the background of the high cost of vegetables last season, when the issue of pricing was discussed at the level of the presidents of Russia and Belarus, the proposal of the Ministry of Industry and Trade deserves attention and is quite interesting, but it will probably cause a heated discussion, including with trade," he said.
So, currently, 1 kg of potatoes in the wholesale market can be bought for 17-20 rubles, while in retail chains it will cost much more, Alexey Krasilnikov gave an example. He recalled that it was the producers who proposed switching to long-term contracts with retail chains, where the price of vegetables would be fixed, in order to reduce prices.
"We definitely support the bill," said Galina Bobyleva, General Director of the Russian Poultry Union (Rospticesoyuz). — We have repeatedly raised these issues ourselves.
According to her, during periods of sharp price changes, the cost of goods from manufacturers is often significantly lower than in retail trade.
At the same time, there is another point of view regarding the initiative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
—We don't see any point in such a bill, as it looks like creating a system of non—market price regulation," Sergei Korshunov, chairman of the Board of the Union of Organic Farming, told Izvestia. — In this case, such an initiative will be purely directive in nature.
The People's Farmer Association did not understand the essence of the bill.
— The business does not provide the Federal Tax Service with data on each purchase. This information is provided only in the case of a comprehensive audit of the tax service with the provision of all documents. Therefore, it is unclear how the cost of a particular product will be estimated," Babken Ispiryan, deputy chairman of the association's board, told Izvestia.
According to him, the retail margin does exist and can reach up to 100%.
— Today, there is a system in which several dozen chains control the entire grocery market. At the same time, when there is a spike in prices for a product and the FAS conducts inspections, they usually concern manufacturers," said a business representative.
The proposed measures increase the risks of leakage of commercially sensitive information from market participants and its abuse in connection with the expansion of the circle of people who will have access to it, fears the Chairman of the Presidium of the Association of Retail Companies (ACORT) Stanislav Bogdanov.
— The Federal Tax Service already has price data based on receipts from cash registers, which it can analyze if necessary. The same product may have different symbols from the manufacturer, supplier, and retail chain. In this regard, it will be difficult to generate relevant data on the dynamics of the cost of goods at all stages of the distribution chain," the business representative believes.
It is also unclear to him how it is proposed to analyze the reasons for the change in the price of the product. The increase in the cost of socially important goods is most often associated with macroeconomic factors such as inflation, currency fluctuations, yields and rising production costs, he said. According to him, retail companies are in constant dialogue with the authorities and provide all the data upon request.
— Since 2022, large federal and regional retail chains have voluntarily reduced margins on socially important goods to maintain the availability of basic foodstuffs. In the first nine months of 2025, the average margin for 25 categories of essential products was 3.4%, which is a historical minimum. Retail chains and ACORT provide the FAS with data on prices for basic foodstuffs on a weekly basis," emphasized Stanislav Bogdanov.
Izvestia sent a request to Rusprodsoyuz, as well as to the largest retail chains.
Will the new rule help regulate prices
The State Duma Committee for the Protection of Competition reacted critically to the initiative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
— Often, the simplification of access to business information, disguised by good goals, only leads to a deterioration of the overall situation. It is clear that the prices of goods in the same food basket are very painful for Russians. But today we are working in the market, and the price spikes that we observed did not occur because someone increased the price, but for economic reasons. Therefore, I would not support this bill," Sergei Lisovsky, deputy chairman of the committee, told Izvestia.
According to him, there is enough government in the economy now. It is simply necessary to create convenient conditions for entrepreneurs, then the cost of goods and their prices will be lower, the deputy believes.
Today, in conditions of high inflation, the measures proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade may be fully justified, says Georgy Ostapkovich, Research director of the HSE Center for Economic Research and Economic Development.
— It is for the FAS, I think, that such information can be provided, but so that it does not affect the business. But this should be done as a temporary measure to balance supply and demand," the expert explained.
At the same time, he noted that the problem of prices all over the world is classified information. If other business structures gain access to it for some reason, then this is already a violation of competition. For this purpose, the concept of a trade secret was introduced, the expert noted. According to him, this does not mean that companies completely hide information about the cost, because there are Rosstat statistics that show the average price for almost every item. In addition, the FAS systematically requests price data from businesses, which tries to control their growth.
This is a very useful bill, as it is aimed at controlling the prices of socially important goods that are included in the consumer basket, Oleg Pavlov, head of the Public Consumer Initiative, explained to Izvestia. According to him, these products are as sensitive as possible and any manipulation of their price parameters has an adverse effect and can lead to negative economic consequences.
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