Russian Duma is to introduce a legislation that aims to give the government more accurate data on cinema ticket sales in the country.

It is considering plans to introduce an electronic system that will report sales from Russia’s 1500 cinemas directly to the government. It is reminiscent of a system used to collect such data during the Soviet era.

It aims to end an era of reportedly unreliable box office data submitted by distributors and exhibitors.

Grigoriy Ivliev, of the Duma culture ministry, has said that approximately between 20 to 30% of the information is not accounted for, which means the government has been missing out on tax since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Ivliev said, “It will take one to two years to introduce this system and it will cost the Russian government up to $2.3m (Roubles 70m).”

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