PRESS RELEASE*

The following issues are scheduled for discussion at the Government Presidium meeting on September 27, 2011

1. Draft federal law On Introducing Amendments to Article 8 of the Federal Law on Agricultural Development 

This draft law has been submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture.

In accordance with the Federal Law on Agricultural Development, the State Programmeme for Agricultural Development and Regulation of Agricultural Products, Raw Materials and Food Markets, is approved by the Government for a five-year period.

At its March 23, 2011 meeting, the Government Commission on the Agroindustrial Complex adopted the decision to set the programme duration period from 2013 through 2020.

This draft law proposes replacing the five-year period for the state programme, determined by the Federal Law on Agricultural Development, with a period defined by the Government.

2. Draft federal law On Introducing Amendments to Article 24 of the Federal Law On the Procedures for Entry and Exit to/from the Russian Federation

This draft law has been submitted by the Ministry of Justice.

This draft law proposes amendments which imply that foreign citizens and those without citizenship and identity documents, who are deported to a foreign state in accordance with a Russian General Prosecutor’s Office decision, may leave Russia under this decision. Also, foreign citizens having no identity documents, who are extradited to Russia in accordance with a Russian General Prosecutor’s Office request for extradition for criminal action or execution of sentence on Russian territory, may enter the country under a written notification from the foreign state’s authoritative body satisfying the request.

A decision on a foreign citizen’s extradition to Russia is to be adopted by the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office in accordance with the procedure established by the Criminal Procedure Code. According to the Code, the request for extradition must include personal data (such as full name, birth date, citizenship, place of residence or stay), and, if possible, a description of the subject’s appearance, photo and other materials that can facilitate identifying the person.  

The amendments proposed by the draft law will allow for the legislative regulation on Russian border entry/exit by foreign citizens who lack the necessary documents and have to be extradited to a foreign state under a Russian General Prosecutor’s Office decision, which will provide implementation of Russia’s international agreements on extradition of specified foreign citizens.

3. Draft federal law On Introducing Amendment to Article 40 of the Russian Criminal Procedure Code

This draft law has been submitted by the Federal Service for Drug Control.

Annually, investigators at territorial bodies of the Federal Service for Drug Control handle some 12,000 criminal cases, with 70% of them investigated by officers at inter-district, district, city or town departments and the offices of the federal service’s territorial bodies.

Over 30% of these criminal cases are completed beyond the terms established by Russia’s Criminal Procedure Code. A major reason for violating the terms is the necessity to coordinate procedural decisions with territorial agency authorities, who exercise powers of the head of an investigative agency. 

This draft federal law proposes reclassifying inter-district, district, city and town departments and offices of the federal service’s territorial bodies as investigative bodies, which will allow for shorter procedural periods and a decrease in expenses on managing the activities of investigation departments and investigators, which are often located at a considerable distance from territorial bodies of the Federal Service for Drug Control.

4. Draft federal law On Introducing Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation Due to the Delimitation of Authority

5. Draft federal law On Ratification of the Agreement Between the Governments of Russia and Latvia on Eliminating Double Taxation and Prevention of Fiscal Evasion Concerning Taxes on Income and Capital 

This draft federal law has been submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance.

This draft law provides conditions for the contracting states’ legal entities and individuals to be exempt from double income tax liability in their respective countries and in the partner state, which will allow for attracting foreign investments to each of the contracting states under mutually beneficial conditions.

The draft law corresponds to the draft model agreement between Russia and foreign countries on avoiding double taxation and preventing evasion of taxes on income and property, as well as to standard models recommended by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations.

This draft law establishes reduced tax rates on passive income (such as dividends, interest and royalties) at the location of the residence of a company paying them. In addition, the bill uses certain terms and criteria not included in the model agreement.

Establishing tax rates on passive income (such as dividends, interest and royalties) at the residence of a company which pays them, in volumes lower than those implied in the model agreement, seeks to increase Russia’s taxation base as Russia’s major investment flows go to Latvia, with Russian persons being the main recipients of such passive income.

Seeking to adjust the draft law to the current requirements of international taxation, the contracting parties have coordinated the draft law’s Protocol, which is its integral part. The Protocol regulates limiting preferences, tax information exchange and other issues.

This draft law will expand the possibilities of taxation bodies to exchange necessary taxation data, which will result in determining additional sources of budget revenue.

6. Draft federal law On Ratification of the Agreement on Applying Information Technology in Exchanging Electronic Documents in Foreign and Mutual Trade on the Common Customs Territory of the Customs Union

This draft federal law On Ratification of the Agreement on Applying Information Technology in Exchanging Electronic Documents in Foreign and Mutual Trade on the Common Customs Territory of the Customs Union has been submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media.

This draft law proposes ratification of the Agreement, which was signed on September 21, 2010 in Moscow.

The statutes of the Agreement regulate, at the interstate level, the issues of developing and applying information technology to secure the economic integration process, to develop foreign and mutual trade, as well as to remove legal barriers in using the Customs Union’s e-document distribution system, to increase the efficiency of foreign and mutual trade through adopting unified rules for e-document exchange within the Customs Union’s common territory.

7. Signing an Agreement between the Governments of Russia and Serbia on the status of Russian military memorials on Serbian territory and the status of Serbian military memorials on Russian territory

This draft executive order has been submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The agreement aims to establish a legal base for providing the proper maintenance of Russian military gravesites, monuments and memorial sites on Serbian territory.

Serbia has some 17 military cemeteries, holding the remains of about 5,000 Soviet soldiers, and some 50 memorial sites commemorating Soviet soldiers, as well as a number of World War I cemeteries, with the remains of some 1,000 Russian army soldiers.

8. Introducing amendments to certain acts of the Government of the Russian Federation

This draft resolution has been submitted by the Ministry of Finance.

This draft resolution implies introducing amendments to the Regulations of the Russian Government and the Statute on the governmental commission on budget projects for the next fiscal year and the planned period concerning specifying the procedure of introducing amendments to the federal law on the federal budget.

It is proposed that the draft federal law on introducing amendments to the federal law on the federal budget will be developed by the Ministry of Finance and considered by the governmental commission on budget projects for the next fiscal year and the planned period.

In order to coordinate the Regulations of the Russian Government with the Budget Code, amendments are also proposed to the regulations concerning the timing for submission of the draft federal law on the federal budget to the Government, and the bodies responsible for simultaneously introducing other draft laws and bills along with the draft federal law on the federal budget.

9. Introducing amendments to the Statute on the Federal Agency for Forestry

This draft resolution has been submitted by the Federal Agency for Forestry.

This law stipulates that the authorised executive federal body approve regulatory legal acts concerning forest seed farming facilities and usage of forests for raising forest planting materials, classification of forest fire risks and fire hazard in forests depending on weather conditions, monitoring of the organisation and form of data presentation on fire hazard in forests and forest fires, restricting public access to forests and crossing into forests for transport. The law also determines standards for local forest district area patrolling, as well as the means used for forest fire prevention and extinguishing and requirements for providing them to persons using forest areas, and availability standards for the means of forest fire prevention and extinguishing during forest use.

In addition, the authorised executive federal body is responsible for fire safety measures and the extinguishing of fires in the forests which are not transferred to the authority of state bodies, in accordance with the Forestry Code, and approves forestry regulations for forest districts and parks.

The introduced draft resolution proposes to confirm the specified and other authorities of the Federal Agency for Forestry established in the Forestry Code.

10. Considering certain statutes in acts, issued by the Russian Government concerning the authority of the Federal Service for Supervision of Environment, Technology and Nuclear Management, as null and void

This draft resolution has been submitted by the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief.

This draft resolution stipulates the termination of authority of the Federal Service for Supervision of the Environment, Technology and Nuclear Management in the control and supervision over mine rescue operations as regards mine rescue brigades’ preparedness for incident response at serviced enterprises, due to the Ministry receiving functions of authority over mine rescue brigades, including the maintenance of the brigades’ preparedness.

11. Allocating budgetary provisions from the Russian Government’s Reserve Fund to the Government of North Ossetia – Alania for prevention and relief of emergency situations and consequences of natural disasters and for relief of the consequences of heavy rains which occurred in North Ossetia – Alania in May 2011

12. Rendering assistance to citizens injured in the terrorist acts in the city of Makhachkala, Dagestan, on September 21 and 22, 2011

Moscow,

September 26, 2011

* Press releases by the Department of Press Service and Information 

contain the materials submitted by the executive federal bodies for 

discussion by the Presidium of the Government of the Russian Federation