The following issues are scheduled for discussion:
1. North Caucasus Federal District Development to 2025 draft state programme
The programme is aimed at stimulating regional economic development by establishing new economic growth centres and coordinating infrastructure investments made by the government and the investment strategies of businesses, while taking due account of space development priorities and resource limitations.
The programme includes the following sub-programmes:
- Making the North Caucasus Federal District More Attractive for Investments;
- Developing the Caucasus Mineralnye Vody Specially Protected Environmental and Resort Region;
- Developing a Tourist Cluster in the North Caucasus Federal District, the Krasnodar Territory, and the Republic of Adygea.
Long-term planning and assessments covering the efficiency and the adequacy of the resources in the regions concerned will take place under seven territorial sub-programmes – one for each region.
2. Heating Season, 2012-2013
An analysis of the materials submitted by the Ministry of Energy shows that the 2012-2013 heating season was well prepared for, and proceeded as scheduled.
By December 1, 2012, all power plants had been stocked with fuel – coal and fuel oil. A total of 47,000 MW of generating capacity, 138,000 tonne/hours of power-generating boiler capacity, 94,400 kilometres of power transmission lines, and 434 kilometres of heating networks were repaired in the first 10 months of 2012 under the calendar schedule.
3. Amending the federal law On the Basic Principles of the Legislative and the Executive Bodies of State Authority in the Regions of the Russian Federation, and the federal law On the Basic Principles of Local Government in the Russian Federation, in terms of extending the procedure for conducting regulatory impact assessments of normative legal acts drafted by the bodies of state authority in the regions and to normative legal acts drafted by municipalities, and to introduce the expert examination of existing normative legal acts to identify provisions unreasonably hampering entrepreneurship and investment
The draft law stipulates the adoption of a procedure for conducting regulatory impact assessments in relation to normative legal acts drafted by regional bodies of state authority and by local government bodies, and the introduction of the expert examination of existing normative legal acts in the regions and of municipal normative legal acts.
The purpose of the regulatory impact assessment is to identify the provisions in a drafted normative legal act that introduce excessive duties, bans, or restrictions on entrepreneurs or investors or contribute to their introduction, as well as provisions that generate unwarranted expenses for entrepreneurs or investors or their budgets.
Existing normative legal acts bearing on entrepreneurship and investment shall be examined by experts to identify provisions unreasonably hampering entrepreneurship and investment.
4. Procedure for federal executive authorities for conducting assessments of the regulatory impact of draft normative legal acts, draft amendments to draft federal laws, and draft decisions by the Eurasian Economic Commission Council, as well as on introducing amendments to some statutes of the Government of the Russian Federation
The draft resolution defines the procedure for conducting regulatory impact assessments in the early stages of law-making by federal executive bodies responsible for drafting normative legal acts. The proposal has been made for the Ministry of Economic Development to be vested with preparing opinions on regulatory impact assessments.
The draft resolution enlarges the list of draft normative legal acts to be assessed for regulatory impact. The proposal has been made to include draft acts that regulate relations on tax collection issues, relations arising during tax control, appeals against moves by tax authorities or acts or omissions by their officials, persecution for tax violations, and relations governing customs rules and procedures.
The draft resolution also proposes to extend the procedure for regulatory impact assessment to draft Government amendments for draft federal laws submitted to the State Duma by the Government and governing relations listed in the Government Regulations, as well as for draft decisions by the Eurasian Economic Commission’s Council.
The draft resolution approves rules for federal executive authorities to assess the regulatory impact of draft normative legal acts, draft amendments to draft federal laws, and draft decisions taken by the Eurasian Economic Commission’s Council.
Information about acts drafted by the federal executive authorities and the results of their public discussion are recommended to be posted on the official information and telecommunications website at: regulation.gov.ru.
5. Draft federal law On Amending Federal Law No 402-FZ On Accounting dated December 6, 2011
Russia joined the Convention on Combating the Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions on February 1, 2012. The act concerned requires that rules be established to prevent off-the-books accounts, the making of off-the-books or inadequately identified transactions, the recording of non-existent expenditures, the entry of liabilities with the incorrect identification of their object, and the use of false documents.
The draft amends the federal law On Accounting and introduces stricter accountancy rules. It also sets new requirements, namely – the non-acceptance of documents formalising non-existent economic facts, or sham or fictitious transactions, the non-registration of sham or fictitious entries in accounting records, and maintaining records that do not comply with the acceptable standards, and only including in accounting reports data contained in accounting records.
6. Submitting a proposal to the President of the Russian Federation to sign the Cooperation Agreement on Establishing an Integrated Currency Market of Commonwealth of Independent States Member-Countries
The draft agreement was approved upon the decision of the CIS Heads of Government Council on May 30, 2012 in Ashgabat.
The draft contains definitions of the following terms: integrated currency market, resident bank, interbank conversion transactions, and competent authorities.
The draft stipulates that each Party gives resident banks of other Parties possessing the right to carry out currency transactions in accordance with the legislation of their founding state an access to its national currency market to perform interbank conversion transactions on terms no less favourable than those granted to the resident banks of this Party.
The draft states that actions by the competent authorities shall be coordinated and the requirements of the integrated currency market participants shall be agreed upon by the CIS agency responsible for cooperation between CIS member-countries in the financial and monetary sphere.
The draft also specifies that the provisions of this agreement shall apply to banks set up and functioning under international treaties whose founders are signatories to this agreement and have their permanent residence in one of the member-countries of this agreement.
7. Distributing the 2012 federal budget subsidies to the regional budgets of the Russian Federation to support information society projects in these regions
The draft directive approves the distribution of subsidies prepared after the examination of the regions’ requests. At a December 3, 2012 meeting, the tender commission declared 22 regions as the winners.
8. Distributing grants to the regional budgets of the Russian Federation to support measures to balance the regional budgets of the Russian Federation in 2012
Under the draft directive, the resources will be distributed between 25 regions of the Russian Federation in 2012.
The distribution of the resources was examined and approved by the Task Group for Improving Inter-Budget Relations at a November 9, 2012 meeting.
Based on the results achieved in increasing the tax potential, the largest grants are to be issued to the Primorye Territory (794.3 million roubles), the Krasnodar Territory (777.1 million roubles) and the Leningrad Region (687.4 million roubles), and the smallest grants to the Nizhny Novgorod Region (255.3 million roubles), the Omsk Region (244.8 million roubles) and the Tula Region (233.6 million roubles).
9. Distributing the 2012 federal budget subsidies to the regional budgets of the Russian Federation to co-fund the spending liabilities of the regions to support agricultural production and social infrastructure in the countryside
The draft directives approve the distribution and the re-distribution of the 2012 subsidies to co-fund the spending liabilities of the regions of the Russian Federation:
With regard to the measures to promote consultation services for agricultural producers, subsidies totalling 14.8 million roubles will be redistributed after two regions failed to use them. The resources indicated shall be directed to increase the budget allocations to subsidise the spending liabilities of the regions to lay down and to cultivate perennial plantations.
With regard to the measures to lay down and to cultivate perennial plantations, subsidies totalling 255.6 million roubles will be redistributed between the regions, with 22.4 million roubles not used by nine regions and 233.2 million roubles from further allocated funds redistributed via other state programme channels. This is due to the growth of the area of perennial plantations and the rise of the costs involved. The subsidies are being directed to 31 regions with additional needs.
With regard to the measures to compensate farming operations, including those performed by individual entrepreneurs, for some costs involved in formalising the ownership of their agricultural land plots, subsidies totalling 218.4 million roubles and left unused by 46 regions will be redistributed. The resources indicated will increase budget allocations to lay down and to cultivate perennial plantations.
With regard to the measures to promote the Social Development of the Countryside to 2013 federal targeted programme, subsidies totalling 2.3 billion roubles and allocated additionally will be redistributed, including:
- · 700 million roubles from resources redistributed under the state programme;
- · 1.6 billion roubles from additional federal budget allocations under the Federal Law On Amending the Federal Law On the Federal Budget for 2012 and the 2013-2014 Planning Period.
The resources concerned will be directed to:
- · improve the housing conditions of individuals residing in the countryside, including young families and specialists – 1.6 billion roubles;
- · supply domestic gas to the countryside – 250 million roubles;
- · develop water supplies in the countryside – 250 million roubles;
- · develop a general educational network in the countryside – 170 million roubles;
- · promote culture and entertainment – 30 million roubles.
10. Amending the distribution in 2012 and the 2013-2014 planning period of the federal budget subsidies mainly administered by the Ministry of Regional Development and granted to the regional budgets to co-fund the state-owned capital construction projects that are not included in the federal targeted programmes and that are funded from the regional budgets, and/or subsidies from the regional budgets granted to co-fund the municipally-owned capital construction projects that are not included in the federal targeted programmes and that are funded from the local budgets
The draft resolution also grants to the Smolensk Region's budget in 2012 additional financial assistance to co-fund the preparations for and the holding of events to celebrate the 1,150th anniversary of the founding of Smolensk:
- · to upgrade engineering and utility networks and to conduct repairs and restoration – 288.2 million roubles;
- · to resettle residents from dilapidated and unsafe housing in Smolensk – 205.4 million roubles
11. Amending the distribution of the 2012 subsidies to the regional budgets of the Russian Federation to perform capital repairs on the hydro-engineering works owned by the regions or the municipalities or on ownerless hydro engineering works, as well as to dispose of ownerless hydro-engineering works as part of the 2012-2020 Water Industry Development federal targeted programme
The draft directive proposes redistributing the subsidies granted to the regional budgets within the 2012 quotas and totalling 183.1 million roubles, taking them from the Komi Republic, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Arkhangelsk Region, the Belgorod Region, the Kaluga Region, the Kemerovo Region, the Kirov Region, the Kursk Region, the Lipetsk Region, the Novgorod Region, the Pskov Region, the Ryazan Region, the Saratov Region, the Tyumen Region, the Ulyanovsk Region, the Yaroslavl Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area as not required, as well as from the Khabarovsk Territory, the Ivanovo Region and the Tula Region, which failed to submit substantiated proposals for the use of subsidy quotas in 2012.
The quotas to be released are expected to be spent on finishing capital repairs on hydro-engineering works in the Republic of Tatarstan, the Karachayevo-Circassian Republic, the Republic of Mordovia, the Kurgan Region and the Novosibirsk Region and on cutting the commissioning deadlines for facilities with highly estimated costs, and on the capital repairs of ownerless hydro-engineering works in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and the Volgograd Region, which are in unsafe conditions.
12. Amending the distribution of the 2012 federal budget subventions to the regional budgets, as provided for by the transferred powers of the Russian Federation, for the social protection of individuals with disabilities and certain categories of categories of citizens among veterans, as approved by Government directive No 2215-r of December 8, 2011
The draft amends the distribution of the 2012 subventions and allocates additional funds for 16 regions to provide rehabilitation assistance for 253,000 individuals with disabilities.
The draft was prepared in accordance with the federal law On Amending the Federal Law On the Federal Budget for 2012 and the 2013-2014 Planning Period, which allocates 2.962 billion roubles to the Ministry of Labour for the stated aims.
13. Distributing the 2013 federal budget subsidies provided as state support for certain pubic and other non-profit organisations, as well as for national public organisations of the disabled
Subsidy recipients are planned to include 16 public and other non-profit organisations concerned with resolving social issues, protecting the rights and the legitimate interests of certain categories of citizens, training labour protection and social relations staff, promoting a healthy lifestyle, and helping the rehabilitation and the social integration of the disabled, and also four national public organisations of the disabled – the All-Russia Society of the Disabled, the All-Russia Society of the Blind, the All-Russia Society of the Deaf, and the All-Russia Public Organisation of Disabled Veterans of the Afghan War and With Military Injuries War-Disabled Persons.
The federal law On the Federal Budget for 2013 and the 2014-2015 Planning Period allocates 847. 494 million roubles to the Ministry of Labour as state support for public and other non-profit organisations and 1.282 billion roubles as state support for national public organisations of the disabled.
Budget allocations to the Ministry of Healthcare to provide state support for public and non-profit organisations total 272.7 million roubles.
14. Distributing the 2013 federal budget subsidies and subventions to the regional budgets to provide social protection and to relieve tensions on the employment markets in the regions
The Ministry of Labour submitted the following draft resolutions:
- on the distribution of the 2013 federal budget subsidies to the regional budgets to co-fund the spending liabilities of the regions arising from the award of a monthly cash payment;
- on the distribution of the subventions granted in 2013 from the federal budget to regional budgets, in the exercise of the transferred federal powers, to provide social protection to the disabled and to certain categories of citizens among veterans;
- on the distribution in 2013 of the federal budget subsidies to the regional budgets for the implementation of additional measures to relieve tensions on the employment markets in the regions.
1. Draft directive on monthly cash payments
The amount of the subsidy to a specific region was determined from the projected average monthly number of children in the region whose births call for monthly payments, the size of the payment that corresponds to the subsistence minimum established in the region for children and from the region’s estimated available budget.
The federal budget for 2013 and the 2014-2015 planning period allocates 3.66 billion roubles for these purposes in 2013.
2. Draft directive on the transfer of powers to provide social protection
The federal budget for 2013 and the 2014-2015 planning period allocates 6.622 billion roubles for these purposes in 2013.
3. Draft directive on employment market measures
Subsidies will be granted for implementing the following additional measures:
- · in all regions of the Russian Federation, with the exception of Moscow and St Petersburg, to allocate 873.3 million roubles to provide employment to unoccupied disabled job seekers at workplaces fitted and equipped for them;
- · in regions categorised as areas with tense situation on the employment markets, to allocate 1.017 billion roubles to:
- pre-emptive vocational training and probation training for workers at risk of dismissal;
- provide probation training for the graduates of occupational education institutions;
- provide occupational training for and to give skill ratings to job seekers who want to obtain a document testifying to their professional qualification;
- stimulate employers to fill vacancies with unemployed citizens residing in areas with tense situation on the employment markets;
- help unemployed citizens to fill additional jobs created by unemployed people who have opened their own businesses as part of regional programmes to relieve tensions on the employment markets in previous years;
- help find employment for citizens residing in the regions of the Russian Federation with tense situation at employment markets in the North Caucasus Federal District and help state-run Interregional Resource Centre employment agencies in the Stavropol Territory.
The federal budget for 2013 and the 2014-2015 planning period allocates 1.89 billion roubles for these purposes in 2013.
15. Amending the Statute on the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation
The draft resolution aims to vest the Ministry of Finance with the following powers to:
- · set the size of the relief fund depending on the summary obligations by all of the members of the professional association of insurers under mandatory liability insurance contracts with carriers for causing harm to the life, health or property of passengers, as well as the procedure for forming and using the relief fund for the mandatory liability insurance of carriers for causing harm to the life, health or property of passengers;
- · agree on the preliminary rules for insurers’ professional activity in the mandatory liability insurance of carriers for causing harm to the life, health or property of passengers;
- · monitor the annual rates of insurance tariffs used in the mandatory liability insurance of carriers for causing harm to the life, health or property of passengers, check their validity and bring the monitoring results to the notice of federal and local government bodies and citizens through the mass media and the Internet information and telecommunications network.
16. Amending the Statute on the Federal Antimonopoly Service
The draft resolution proposes to vest the FAS with the powers to:
- · coordinate the establishment or the modification by a unified all-Russia professional association of insurers providing mandatory liability insurance to transport vehicle owners of a procedure for providing members of the above association with mandatory liability insurance forms and forms used in international insurance;
- · coordinate the establishment or the modification of a procedure for joining a unified all-Russia professional association of insurers that provides mandatory liability insurance to carriers for causing harm to the life, health or property of passengers, and exiting or being expelled from it.
Moscow
December 12, 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 meeting.