MOSCOW -- In another protectionist move for the domestic car industry, the Russian government has reduced the excise tax for the GAZ car maker to 10 percent from 35 percent, a senior official at the plant said Monday.Alexei Novikov, the commercial director at the plant, said that the excise tax reduction will enable the plant to reap much higher profits, which will help it repay its debt to the government.Similar privileges have already been given to other car producers, including AvtoVAZ and AZLK. GAZ currently produces 150,000 popular Volga cars a year.The government earlier had hiked import tariffs for foreign cars to as high as 140 percent to protect domestic producers.