As a deadline for income tax declarations ran out Thursday', Russia's fiscal inspectorate came under pressure to make a success of sweeping reforms that President Vladimir Putin introduced at the start of the year.

, Posters have been up in Russia's major cities for several weeks warning citizens starkly that they should pay up fairly and squarely or face a visit from the tax police.

lime will tell if the posters have been effective, and the early signals were mixed.

Some 3.1 million citizens handed in their income declarations for fiscal 2000 on time. 200,000 fewer than last year, the tax ministry said Thursday.

However the ministry’, quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency, said that on the basis of previous years a further 300,000 to 4 00,000 tax returns could be expected to

arrive in the next few days.

In Russia only independent workers or people with more than one source of income are required to make a personal tax declaration.

In other cases tax declarations are made by the employer, and Russia's army of tax inspectors will have 57 million individual cases to consider.

The new tax regime that came into force on January I. seen by some as the single most important piece of economic reform introduced under Putin, controversially slashed tax rates and introduced modest fiat levy of 13 per cent, aiming to put an end to years of chronic fraud.

Putin himself described the new tax regime as "an important event in the file of the country," and economic ministers have reported early signs that it is paying off.

lax receipts in the first quarter of 2001 were 36 per cent higher than in the first quarter of 2000." Economic Development Minister German Gref told a meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London last month.

With income tax ... the total amount collected grew in the first quarter of 2001 by 63 per cent from the first quarter of last year."

However tax evasion is endemic in post-Communist Russia, both personal and corporate, with tens of billions of dollars either remaining in the pockets of individual wage-earners or escaping to offshore or foreign banks through a variety of scams.

Many Russians justify the nonpayment of tax by arguing that government officials are corrupt and tax revenues would go to waste.