Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin organized a governmental sustainability committee meeting in order to discuss the financial situation at Auchan, IKEA, METRO Cash & Carry, and OBI’s local subsidiaries with their representatives. The officials also wanted to assess the government and the enterprises’ cooperation prospects, including those concerning a number of social welfare projects, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Governor reported.

Anatoly Gredin said the foreign retail chains did not fully provide the region’s trade ministry with the data on their activity.

‘All this makes it rather difficult to asses the current trends on Sverdlovsk Region’s retail trade market, to analyze the prospective tax revenues, or to evaluate the trade industry’s development as a whole,’ he explained.

The foreign chain store representatives did admit that their tax payments were lower than usual but assured the government officials that these payments would not undergo any drastic changes in the near future.