Draft Federal Law No 167617-6 On Amendments to Article 6 of the Ferderal Law “On the Special Economic Area in the Kaliningrad Region and Amendments to Some Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation” was submitted by State Duma deputies Alexander Zhukov and Natalya Burykina. The Draft Law proposes, as the legislative foundation of the Customs Union is being laid, to set forth a new version of Article 6 of the federal law which provides additional guarantees to the residents of the Special Economic Area in the Kaliningrad Region and to maintain the guarantees formerly established for legal entities. The document passed the first reading in the State Duma on 19 December 2012.
The Government of the Russian Federation proposes the following changes be introduced to the draft federal law.
1. Article 1:
а) Paragraph 2 be worded as follows:
Article 6. Guarantees to Residents;
b) Paragraph 3 be worded in the following edition:
1. In cases where a federal law may come into effect which changes tax rates (with the exception of excise, added value tax on goods produced on the territory of the Russian Federation) and insurance premiums on state non-budget funds (with the exception of premiums on the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation), or changes are made to federal laws and other legislative and regulatory acts of the Russian Federation which increase the total tax load on the resident or introduce a series of prohibitions and restrictions regarding his investments, compared to the total tax load or regime according to the federal laws and regulatory acts of the Russian Federation as of the day of the start of resident’s implementation of the investment project, in this case these federal laws as well as other regulatory legislation of the Russian Federation shall not apply with regards to the resident throughout the duration of the investment project, provided he abides by the provisions of the present federal law;
c) in paragraph 5 the phrase “are compensated from the federal budget” should be changed to “are compensated from the federal budget in accordance with the budget legislation of the Russian Federation. The procedures and conditions for providing compensation for paying customs tolls and taxes from the federal budget are set by the Government of the Russian Federation”;
d) Paragraph 7 to be excluded.
2. Part 2 of Article 2 to be worded as follows:
2. The provisions of Part 3 of the Federal Law “On the Special Economic Area in the Kaliningrad Region and Amendments to Some Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation” No 16-FZ of 10 January 2006 remain in effect until 1 April 2016.