The largest mining company BitRiver turned to the Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov with a proposal to recognize the mining of cryptocurrencies as an economic activity and assign the OKVED code.

BitRiver management believes that the recognition of mining as an industry will help regulate this area. Oleg Ogienko, BitRiver Government Relations Director, noted that mining can be included in the “Manufacturing industries” section of the classifier and an additional grouping can be added.

The taxation of mining is also important, and recognizing it as an economic activity will make it more correct. So, taxes in industry are paid after the sale of goods and, according to Ogienko, in the case of mining, companies should also be taxed only after the sale of cryptocurrency.

According to Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma committee on the financial market, the initiative has already been sent to the government for approval. He said that the idea is quite sound and he did not notice the rejection in the circles of deputies. In addition, if mining is assigned OKVED, this code can be written into the bill on mining, which is still under consideration by the State Duma.

The press service of the Ministry of Economic Development noted that the assignment of OKVED codes is possible, but it is necessary to regulate the industry with a “description of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the type of activity.”

In a letter to Manturov, BitRiver representatives emphasized that mining should be recognized as an economic activity, since the share of mining (10.8-14.1 billion kWh in 2022) exceeds 1% of total electricity consumption in Russia. In addition, the complexity of building data centers is quite comparable in complexity to the launch of industrial facilities.

According to the Analytical Center (AC) of the Fuel and Energy Complex, last year the consumption of electricity by miners was 5 billion kWh, while in 2021 miners in the country needed 9.3 billion kWh.