Russian government wants to create a ‘single federal information resource’ to track personal income

Russia’s government has introduced draft legislation in the State Duma that would create a “single federal information resource” to collect information about the country’s citizens. Russia’s Tax Service would maintain the new system, which would aggregate citizens’ full names, birth dates, places of birth and death, personal insurance numbers, tax identification numbers, marital status, and family ties.

The bill’s authors say the new initiative would help “raise the efficiency and quality” of the government’s management decisions, reduce the time needed to provide state and municipal services, and “ensure the transition to a qualitatively new level of calculation and taxation of personal income.”

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev first announced the government’s plans for a new federal database in 2016. 

Earlier this year, Russia’s Communications Ministry published the text of a draft law that would create a “digital profile” for every citizen. It’s unclear how this analogous project would coexist with the government’s new database initiative.