A meeting of the Forum on Tax Administration of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development opened Thursday.
The delegates of the forum, coming from about 50 countries, exchanged opinions about how tax authorities could improve their work.
President Vladimir Putin gave a welcome speech via a video linkup from his Sochi residence.
"Unfortunately, your work isn't praised in poems and songs because few people like to pay taxes," Putin said. "But that doesn't downgrade the importance of your service."
Putin said the government had recently allowed the Federal Tax Service to share information with its foreign counterparts. Russia is hoping for reciprocity in this issue, he said.
He noted that Russia had risen in the World Bank's tax administration ranking to the 64th place from the 105th.
(MT)
