Nearly two-thirds of Russians questioned in a new poll do not believe that business can be both honest and profitable, the Romir monitoring company reported.
About 59% of the poll’s 1 600 respondents said it was impossible to profit from a business if one paid all the proper taxes and gave out no bribes, researchers said, adding that in large cities the percentage of sceptics rose to 64%.
When questioned as to the reasons, 45% said that honesty and profit did not go hand-in-hand in today’s Russia, while 42% said they believed that an enterpreneur could not survive without giving bribes.
Twenty-seven percent of respondents complained that taxes were too steep.
Just 20% of the poll’s respondents said it was possible to combine honesty and profit, just of half of whom said it depended on the enterpreneur’s wishes, while 30% said it required the businessman to restrain his profit-seeking appetite.
Almost a quarter of those questioned felt the law had enough holes in it to allow some fairly shady practices to slip through. – Sapa-AFP