The following issues are scheduled for discussion at the 25 October 2012 Government meeting:

1. State-backed agricultural insurance in 2012

         The draft federal law aims to upgrade the system of state-backed agricultural insurance.

2. Draft federal law On Amending Article 33 of the Federal Law On Political Parties

         The draft law proposes increasing the state funding for political parties from twenty roubles to fifty roubles per vote if the federal list of candidates from the political party concerned in the State Duma elections has received no less than 3% of the vote. 

3. Fulfilment of the forecast plan (programme) for federal property privatisation in 2011-2013 and the measures to restrict the acquisition of shares and stakes in business firms by state-owned companies

         In keeping with the presented plan (programme) for federal property privatisation in 2011-2013, it is planned to privatise 1,414 business companies, 284 federal state unitary enterprises and 545 state property facilities.

4. Draft federal law On Amending the Federal Law on the Federal Budget for 2012 and the 2013-2014 Planning Period 

5. Phased improvement of the payment system for public sector staff

         The draft programme aims to preserve the human resource potential, to make jobs in the public sector more prestigious and attractive, and to increase the pay of staff with a view to improve the quality of state services rendered.

         The following objectives need to be met to achieve the goals set:

• to optimise the wage and salary structure by taking into account the complicacy of the work done, annulling regular bonuses that do not motivate staff to perform better and redistributing the released funds to increase the percentage of incentive bonuses in the pay packet;
• to increase the stimulating role of wages and salaries by developing branch-specific systems of indicators for assessing the efficiency of institutions  rendering state services.

6. Measures to improve the performance of state institutions to prevent inter-ethnic conflicts

The package includes:

• measures to reduce the effect of the non-balanced socio-economic development of constituent entities of the Russian Federation on inter-ethnic relations, to reduce inter-regional differentiation in the socio-economic situation of the regions and the quality of life of the population, to lower the unemployment level, to promote the sustainable development of the North Caucasus regions, and to attract and to settle people in the Far East and the Baikal area by developing their economies and providing comfortable social conditions;
• measures to consolidate civil unity, to strengthen general civic identity and inter-ethnic tolerance, and to improve inter-ethnic relations;
• measures to preserve the cultural diversity of the Russian Federation, to support the culture of the peoples of the Russian Federation, and to form a common  ethno-cultural space of the Russian Federation;
• measures to integrate and to adapt external and internal migrants, as well as to prevent the possible negative effect of migration processes on inter-ethnic relations, to expand cooperation between the state and civil society institutions on the adaptation and integration of migrants, to incentivise and to organise the voluntary resettlement of compatriots, and to promote mutual tolerance between settlers and indigenous people.

7. Draft federal law On Amending Articles 219 and 220 of the Federal Law On Customs Regulation in the Russian Federation

         Presently, the customs authorities are moving to electronic customs declaration procedures and taking measures to ensure their functioning.

         The main purpose of electronic declarations is to simplify and speed up customs procedures for foreign trade participants as much as possible through  automation, the reduction of document turnover, fewer personal contacts with customs officials, and the possibility of implementing distance customs formalities under the required customs controls.

8. Draft federal law On Amending the Federal Law on Industrial Safety at Hazardous Production Facilities and Other Statutes of the Russian Federation

         Similar to EU norms, the draft law proposes classifying hazardous production facilities according to the risk of an accident and the scale of the possible damage.

         In relation to the First Danger Class production facilities, a permanent supervision regime is stipulated. Scheduled checks of organisations responsible for running First and Second Danger Class facilities are recommended once a year, and scheduled checks of organisations responsible for Third Danger Class facilities are recommended once every three years. There will be no checks on Fourth Danger Class facilities.

         For organisations responsible for the operation of First and Second Danger Class facilities, it is proposed to develop industrial safety management systems.

         In addition, the draft law proposes lumping together two licensed activities (explosion and fire hazardous facilities and chemically hazardous facilities operation) to allow licensees to cut the costs involved in obtaining two licenses.

         With a view to eliminating corruption risks when supervising such facilities, the draft proposes exhaustive lists of technical devices, the use of which at such facilities requires an expert examination of industrial safety, as well as the listing of cases where it is necessary to carry out such examinations.

9. Draft federal law On Amending Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation

(in the section concerning the granting of citizenship in a simplified procedure to participants of the state programme for promoting the voluntary resettlement in the Russian Federation of compatriots residing abroad and their family members, as well as issues regarding the cancellation of temporary residence permits or residence authorisations issued to a state programme participant or his/her family members). 

         The draft law provides for amending the federal laws On Citizenship of the Russian Federation and On the Legal Status of Foreign Nationals in the Russian Federation to encourage the participation of compatriots in the state programme.

         The amendments to the federal law On Citizenship of the Russian Federation will allow participants in the state programme and their family members to obtain citizenship in a simplified procedure – that is to say, without having resided in the Russian Federation for an uninterrupted five years from the moment that residence authorisation was received to the day when the citizenship application was filed.

         The amendments to the federal law On the Legal Status of Foreign Nationals in the Russian Federation also concern the cancellation of temporary residence permits or residence authorisations issued to a state programme participant and his family members.

         The draft law proposes cancelling such documents if it has been established that the persons concerned in the course of five years preceding the filing of the application for a temporary residence permit or residence authorisation were deported from the Russian Federation by administrative order, presented faked or forged documents, or reported knowingly false information about themselves, or have an outstanding conviction for committing a grave or a heinous crime in the Russian Federation.

10. Signing the Protocol on Amending the Agreement on the Rules for Determining the Country of Origin of Goods in the CIS of 20 November 2009

The draft protocol provides for amending the list of conditions and production and technological operations, whose fulfilment will identify a good as originating from a specific country.

11. Granting other inter-budgetary transfers in 2012 from the federal budget to the budget of the Moscow Region to augment the authorised capital of the MOSTRANSAVTO state unitary passenger automobile transport enterprise for the subsequent funding of measures to purchase specialised transport facilities and motor vehicles to carry passengers during the preparation and the holding of the Twenty-Second Olympic and the Eleventh Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014

         The resolution was drafted to provide passenger services during the preparation and the holding of the Twenty-Second Olympic and Eleventh Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014.

12. Implementing measures to simplify accounting and financial reporting for certain categories of economic entities

         General-purpose measures:

1. The federal law On Amending Part One and Part Two of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and Article 26 of the Federal Law on Banks and Banking  abolished the obligation of tax-paying organisations to submit quarterly reports to a local tax authority. In accordance with the Tax Code, all tax-paying organisations, as of 1 January 2013, will only submit annual reports to their local tax authorities. Experts estimate that the volume of reporting will be cut down by no less than 50% as a result. Considering that for most tax-paying organisations the tax authorities are the sole recipients of quarterly reports, such organisations, as of 1 January 2013, will not submit quarterly reports to the executive authorities.

         2. The federal law On Bookkeeping, which comes into force as of 1 January 2013, requires the submission of a mandatory copy of the annual report to a state statistics agency at the place of registration of the economic entity. In this way, the federal law provides for a one-stop principle as far as reporting is concerned. Mandatory copies of annual reports will comprise a state information resource. The Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) will make access to this resource automatic as of 1 January 2013, the service has reported.

         3. Following the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the rules for compiling consolidated reporting other than those recommended by the IFRS have been scrapped. As of 2013, the reporting will be compiled by organisations only according to the IFRS in conformity with the federal law On Consolidated Financial Reporting.

         4. The Ministry of Finance has drafted a federal law to supplement the Code of Administrative Offences with provisions relieving officials of responsibility for violating bookkeeping and reporting rules if they themselves correct an error in the reports in the established procedure. 

         5. The Ministry of Finance is engaged in the simplification of fiscal accounting and the use of bookkeeping records while preparing tax reports.

         Targeted measures:

         1. Small-business entities with the exception of issuers of publicly placed securities

         Presently, small businesses use simplified bookkeeping methods, including simplified annual reporting. The bookkeeping and reporting rules feature simple and less time-consuming ways of recording business data, provide for an abbreviated volume of reporting and an abbreviated number of indicators, and allow for the use of a simplified business account and accounting register system.

         As of reporting for 2012, this category of economic entities will also use simplified accounting statements and profit and loss reports. These will only contain enlarged indicators and will not provide detailed information.

         2. Non-profit organisations

         As of reporting for 2012, socially oriented non-profit organisations will be freed from certain requirements set in bookkeeping regulations. Specifically, they may use the cash method of revenue and expenditure accounting, acknowledge all loan expenses as miscellaneous costs, not enter evaluation or contingent liabilities and assets into bookkeeping reports, not set up reserves for upcoming expenses, and reflect any changes to their accounting policy in documents.

         3. Individual entrepreneurs

         In accordance with the federal law On Bookkeeping, which enters into force on 1 January 2013, individual entrepreneurs do not need to keep records if, under tax and levy legislation, they keep a record of their revenues or revenues and expenses and other taxable items in the procedure established by that legislation. Based on this norm, all individual entrepreneurs that pay taxes under general rules or use special tax regimes are exempt from keeping records.

13. Amending the Statute on the Federal Service for the Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor)

         In accordance with the draft resolution, Roskomnadzor will be vested with new powers, specifically:  

• to develop, set up, and maintain an automated information system – a unified registry of domain names, online website page indexes, and network addresses that can identify online sites containing information whose distribution is banned in the Russian Federation;
• to establish an interface between registry operator and hosting provider and to specify the procedure for the communications operator providing online services to gain access to the information contained in the registry.  

14. Results of the National Contest for the Best Appointed Urban (Rural) Community in Russia in 2011

         The contest is held every year by the Ministry of Regional Development for six categories of municipalities.

         The winning municipalities receive Government diplomas of the first, second or third degrees and a cash prize.

Moscow

24 October 2012

  * Press releases by the Department of Press Service and Information are based on the materials submitted by the federal executive bodies for discussion by the Government of the Russian Federation.