19 april 2011
First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov holds a telephone conference call on transferring federal funds to agricultural producers in 2011 under the State Programme for the Development of Agriculture and of Commodity and Food Markets in 2008-2012, which includes spring field work
The conference was attended by the heads of all of Russia's regions.
"At the government presidium meeting on April 14, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin instructed us to monitor once again the transfer of financial support to agricultural producers," Viktor Zubkov said during his opening remarks.
"This year, 125 billion roubles have been earmarked in the federal budget for measures designated in the state programme, including 104 billion roubles in subsidies to the regions," he said.
"The government approved the documents on transferring all of these funds to the regions in a timely manner," Mr Zubkov said. "However, there has been a kind of a pattern of delay in the transfer of funds to agricultural producers and their co-financing from regional budgets."
According to documents presented at the conference, out of the 26.2 billion roubles transferred by the Ministry of Agriculture to the regions as of April 18, 2011, agricultural producers received a mere 14.6 billion roubles.
Conference participants discussed progress in the implementation by the regions of their agreements with the ministry, the adequacy of the regions' legal framework governing the transfer of subsidies, as well as issues related to compliance with the amounts and deadlines for money transfers to the recipients, and the timely submission of applications for subsidies.
Following the discussion, Mr Zubkov instructed the ministry to sort out before April 20 the incongruities between its own information and that of the regions and to submit to Prime Minister Putin and the government a draft report providing a comprehensive analysis of the current situation. The report should show what funds have been transferred to the regions and specific agricultural producers and when; when the ministry received applications for funds from the regions; and each region's compliance with the schedule for the transfer of funds.
"Please note that the ministry and the regions must ensure that agricultural producers receive by May 1 all the funds allocated from the federal and regional budgets to support the agricultural sector," Mr Zubkov said.
