Scott Says USSR Notifies U.S. That Education Tax Has Been ‘suspended’

Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott said today that the Soviet Union has notified the United States government it has “suspended” its education tax on would-be emigrants, including Jews. The Pennsylvania legislator said after a meeting with President Nixon at the White House that he understood the Soviet leaders have said that by a “formal decree” the tax on exit visas, running as high as $36,000, would no longer be imposed.

However, Scott cautioned that the Soviet government did not say whether the tax “will remain on their books or not” and added that “they only say they are suspending the use of that tax.” Scott called the Soviet decision “very important and significant.” (See separate story from Tel Aviv on the tax “suspension.”)

Senators Henry M.Jackson (D.Wash.) and Abraham Ribicoff (D.Conn.) also attended the White House meeting but they did not comment immediately. Scott made his statements at a news conference at the Capitol. The language of the notification to the U.S. government and the channel through which it was conveyed was not immediately made known. Neither was it clear whether emigration generally was affected.

Scott, a long and ardent supporter of Israel and Soviet Jewry, is a co-sponsor of the Jackson Amendment which would bar U.S. trade benefits and credits to the Soviet Union unless it allows emigration to proceed within the context of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

The Soviet government formally published its education decree after Nixon had said last Oct. that he felt “quiet diplomacy” was the best means of affecting Soviet emigration policy and after the Soviet-American trade agreement had been announced. Some observers here saw in the Soviet publication of its tax decree a strategem which it could use whenever it suited the Kremlin to offer a “concession” in return for a tangible benefit from the United States.

They also noted that the “suspension” of the tax decree came in the wake of authoritative reports that Soviet Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev, would visit Washington in June in return for Nixon’s trip to Moscow last May. It was not expected that Brezhnev would come to the U.S. before the Jackson Amendment issue was resolved.

Scott also said he hoped “Congress does not imperil the Administration’s on-going negotiations with the Soviet Union. My hope is that we can now work out a formula that will not endanger the SALT agreements and attempts” to bring about a solution in the Middle East.