Scientific undermining

Moscow lays claim to land plots of federal research institutes

City officials are clearly trying to speed up the process of transferring land from federal departments to the needs of the city construction complex, which is experiencing a shortage of free sites. Yesterday, deputies of the Moscow City Duma approved the amendments proposed by the mayor's office to the city law "On Land Tax", which provide for the deprivation of benefits from government agencies and scientific organizations financed from the federal treasury. According to the developers of the law, such fiscal measures should cool the ardor of sectoral government organizations and research institutes, which have already taken a defensive position to preserve their territorial possessions in Moscow.

Explaining to deputies the inappropriateness of further maintaining benefits, First Deputy Head of the Department of Economic Policy and City Development Valery Zharov referred to the fact that the estimates of government agencies provide funds for the payment of land tax, and research organizations also conduct active commercial activities. According to him, Moscow legislation allows virtually any scientific organization that receives even the most minimal state support to claim complete tax exemption. Meanwhile, according to capital officials, the main source of income for a number of research institutes, as a rule, is commercial activity, for example, renting out their space. According to the calculations of deputy Alexander Krutov, the share of budget funds in supporting scientific organizations did not exceed 40% in Soviet times, and now it is even lower. In these conditions, according to Mr. Krutov, Moscow looks like a wasteful donor. According to his calculations, if research institutes and some other federal organizations are excluded from the preferential category, the city treasury’s more than two billion income from land tax could double.

However, in this case, fiscal mechanisms are launched not so much to extract material benefits for the budget, but rather from the interest of the capital’s construction complex in the vast land resources of these organizations. According to the developers of the bill, today, in fact, this measure is formal, since the majority of business entities simply do not have formalized land rights. However, as Mr. Krutov explained to Vremya Novostey, already from 2010, by the beginning of which the Land Code of Russia obliges users to register their allotments, the taxation mechanism will contribute to a more rational use of resources so valuable for the metropolis. “Many scientific organizations are delaying the registration of land ownership and will do this until the expiration of the allotted period, so they will not pay taxes for the entire next year,” says Mr. Krutov. And in two years, according to the bill, amendments depriving government and scientific institutions of benefits should come into force.

Chairman of the Commission for Prospective Development and Urban Planning of the Moscow City Duma, Mikhail Moskvin-Tarkhanov, also considers the lack of delimitation of such a colossal land resource unacceptable in the conditions of Moscow’s shortage of construction sites. According to him, the irrationally used territories of various research institutes account for up to 10% of urban land. The initiatives of the Moscow government, as well as measures taken at the federal level, Mr. Moskvin-Tarkhanov is sure, “will force us to evaluate land resources and put them into economic circulation, taking into account the general plan of Moscow.”

Let us recall that it was on the territory of state scientific organizations that the developers of the law “On the Federal Fund for Assistance to the Development of Housing Construction”, approved yesterday by the State Duma in the second reading, also aimed. This bill allows for the transfer of powers to manage released areas to the constituent entities of the federation if they have a general plan, approved land use and development rules and programs for the comprehensive development of utility infrastructure. Therefore, the Moscow authorities, who are now closely engaged in the legislative formalization of their urban planning plans, in the future may well lay claim to experimental testing grounds and other territories of the research institute. Moscow's new tax policy, officials are sure, should make scientists more loyal when land plots are confiscated from them. However, Russian academics managed to enlist the support of the Russian President. The head of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yuri Osipov, during a meeting with Dmitry Medvedev, proposed using the confiscated lands of the research institute primarily for the construction of housing for young scientists.

Yulia KHOMCHENKO