MOSCOW, April 30 (Reuters) - Russia should consider raising taxes on its natural resources sector, adding to an increase in 2020, and ease the tax burden on other sectors, such as technology, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month the corporate sector was on course for record profits, which raised the prospect of "the possible fine-tuning of tax legislation at the end of the year".
"We will keep on saying that we need to increase taxes on the resource sector, which we have done last year. And lower (taxes) on high-technology sectors, such as IT or small business," Siluanov said.
"We need to stimulate the new economy as we see that the resource economy will be gradually replaced by new economic patterns," he said.
Russia targeted the mining, tobacco and oil industries with higher taxes last year, as well as raising taxes for individuals with annual incomes of more than $66,626 and taxing bank deposits.
Siluanov said the overall effect of any tax changes should be neutral for the economy.
($1 = 75.0450 roubles) (Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; Writing by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Mark Potter)
