Documentation

Border on the counter

Soon they won’t just let you out of Russia. Only for money
The government named those whom it will leave without money
The State Duma prohibits the sale of foreign property

Border Guard's Dream
The State Duma decided to help the government in its search for additional budget revenues. Already in the second reading it accepted the amendments to the law “On the State Border of the Russian Federation” proposed by the head of the Security Committee Viktor Ilyukhin. Anyone who wants to leave Russia will have to pay a border tax.
The wave of the hand that a man in a green cap makes when putting a stamp will cost citizens who want to fly, sail or leave by train 0.8 of the minimum wage (today - 66.79 rubles). However, putting a stamp on a citizen is only the cheapest paid service provided by the border guard. For owners of land vehicles (cars, trucks and buses), traveling across the border will cost two times the minimum wage (166.98 rubles). Moreover, if a bus with passengers crosses the border, not only the owner of the bus, but every passenger pays, of course. The situation is similar with passenger trains, airplanes and ships, as well as with cargo transportation (see figure).
How much the state will earn from the new tax can be judged by these figures. In 1997, 11 million people left Russia, 16 million entered. Assuming that the latter will sooner or later want to leave Russia and that there are not so many beneficiaries - disabled people, veterans, children, deputies - among them, let's add up these numbers: it turns out 27 million. Multiply by $11 (approximate dollar equivalent of 0.8 minimum) - we get about $300 million per year. This is only for citizens.
But if the new law threatens citizens only with minor troubles (since a person has money to travel around the world, he will somehow scrape together 0.8 of the minimum wage), then carriers - owners of trains, cars, airplanes who cross the border every day, - large losses. And now it’s time to remember that once - in the spring of 1997 - the Duma already adopted all these amendments. And in the summer of the same year, under pressure from public opinion, it was forced to cancel, leaving the government to regulate this issue. The White House assessed the situation and quickly prepared a corresponding resolution, which established the specific amount of payments. Having learned about this, the carriers filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court. He reviewed the case in November and admitted that border fees can only be established by federal law, and not by resolution. The meeting did not go through.
There is no doubt that if the Ilyukhin bill is adopted, carriers will again go to court. And, most likely, he will recognize the collection as unconstitutional. At least, the judge-reporter for the first border case, Anatoly Kononov, believes that the amendments to the law “On the State Border of the Russian Federation” violate the constitutional principle of establishing taxes and the right of citizens to freedom of movement.
But this is not the only reason why Ilyukhin’s project is unlikely to ever become law. The fact is that the introduction of new taxes and fees should be formalized not in the form of amendments, but by separate laws with the simultaneous inclusion of these payments in the list of taxes and fees contained in the law “On the Fundamentals of the Tax System in the Russian Federation.” This is exactly what the government wants to do, which has already prepared its own bill and insists on the recall of Ilyukhinsky: why discredit a good idea? If Ilyukhin does not listen, the president will apparently veto his project. And carriers and everyone else will have to wait until the Duma adopts the government version of the law. To immediately appeal it to the Constitutional Court.

Life of an official
On June 8, the government submitted to the State Duma “Information on the draft program for saving public expenditures.” The goal of the program is to pay off the overdue debt of the federal budget to the population and enterprises.
This debt, as stated in the document, as of January 1, 1998, exceeded 82 billion rubles. In January-April, according to Kommersant's estimates, based on data from the Ministry of Finance, it increased by at least 55 billion - to 137 billion - and continues to grow.
In recent months, the executive branch has named a variety of figures for the planned reduction of budget expenditures - for example, the government plan approved by the May presidential decree provided for 40 billion rubles, Sergei Kiriyenko spoke about 23 billion, which would be received through the reorganization of the state apparatus. But what and on whom exactly this money will be saved is still not entirely clear. Government "Information..." allows us to partially answer this question.
It is planned to fire 3.6% of all government workers - almost 240 thousand people, which will save 5.9 billion rubles for the budget. In particular, more than 70 thousand employees of the education system will lose their jobs (the government stipulates that the reduction will not affect the teaching staff of educational institutions). Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other law enforcement agencies will be unlucky - customs officers, employees of the prosecutor's office, due to the reduction of which another 3.1 billion will be received. Finally, the government decided to reduce the number of employees of territorial authorities by 20% - this is almost 40 thousand people and a savings of 1 .2 billion
In addition, the program provides for the unification of the remuneration system in the public sector: a single tariff schedule will be introduced for all public sector employees. At the same time, the limits on the number of employees and the wage fund will be lowered from above, as under socialism.
Another area of savings is reducing the number of government institutions (the economic effect is not indicated in the "Information..."). We will talk not only about direct recipients of budget funds (there should be 99 of them by the end of the year), but also about secondary recipients, who receive money through ministries and large departments. It is planned to merge a number of institutions and reduce the costs of their maintenance. In particular, the government planned the “integration” of diversified universities and secondary specialized educational institutions into single universities.
The federal authorities hope to get rid of many expenses by shifting them to the regions. The government proposes to gradually transfer to serve regional budgets health care organizations, cultural institutions, sports institutions, many regional universities, schools, technical schools, kindergartens, a number of federal housing facilities, social infrastructure and other real estate (including military camps, agricultural complexes of the Ministry of Defense and forestry enterprises).
The liquidation of part of the extra-budgetary funds of ministries and departments should yield 5 billion rubles. According to the government, these funds have more than 28 thousand accounts in which 15.7 billion rubles are stored. In particular, sectoral and intersectoral R&D funds, which were formed from voluntary contributions from enterprises, will be abolished. In total, there are 84 such funds with an annual revenue of more than 1 billion. By requisitioning these funds and reducing state support for fundamental and applied research, the government plans to receive up to 1.5 billion rubles. In addition, the Federal Fund for Social Support of the Population of the Russian Federation and centralized social support funds for a number of departments will be liquidated. Money from the Education Stabilization and Development Fund under the Ministry of Education will be used to pay off budget debts to schools. Naturally, all these measures will not contribute to the development of science, education and the social security system. But the government is probably consoled by the thought that the funds from these funds were never used for their intended purpose anyway.
The government proposes to phase out budget subsidies and subsidies to industry, agriculture and the transport sector. In particular, starting from 1999, chemical and petrochemical enterprises and folk arts and crafts will not be financed from the treasury. Subsidies to farmers will be replaced with preferential loans from special credit, leasing and food funds. True, the government does not mention any specific figures here either.
In general, the government “Information...” is not replete with numbers. If you add up those that exist, you get a total savings of about 13 billion rubles. Plus, the document rather vaguely states that the government intends to annually “restructure” 40 billion rubles of its overdue obligations (what this means is unclear, but in any case not “return”). The total is 53 billion rubles. Of which the government, presumably, is going to pay 137 billion of its debts.

Election of a deputy
The State Duma adopted in the first reading the bill “On the temporary suspension of transactions with federal state property located outside the territory of the Russian Federation.” She wants to take control of the process of privatization of foreign property.
There are 2,559 Russian-owned real estate properties abroad with a total area of about 2 million square meters. m (these are only those whose ownership is officially recognized by international agreements). Their cost, according to the Ministry of State Property, is about $9 billion.
The government has recently been seriously developing plans to centralize the management of foreign property within the framework of a state joint-stock company. And at the same time - the sale of some of the objects. The government bill on reorganizing the management of federal property abroad was scheduled for first reading on the same day as the parliamentary bill on suspending transactions with it. The Duma opposition won - the government draft was withdrawn from consideration, and the parliamentary draft was adopted.
If it passes the next reading, any transactions with foreign property will be prohibited to the government for a year. Or longer: according to the document, the moratorium on transactions will be extended if, at the end of the year, parliament does not pass a federal law on the management of foreign property.
Thus, the government will not be able to support the budget by selling part of its foreign real estate. Other transactions are also under threat: the Central Bank, for example, is going to sell two subsidiary foreign banks - Donau Bank (Austria) and East-West United Bank (Luxembourg). In the spring, legislators allowed him to do this. And now, it turns out, they want to ban it.
However, the president, of course, will not allow them to be banned. The State Duma cannot count on Yeltsin signing the law. But deputies are quite capable of achieving some control over foreign privatization. For example, by demanding that foreign state property be included in the privatization program approved by parliament.

VLADIMIR STUPIN

Completely illegally collecting 66 rubles 79 kopecks from everyone who wants to leave Russia, the state receives the legal $300 million a year
The government has detailed who it will save 13 billion rubles on. But he didn’t explain where he would get another hundred

Magazine "Kommersant Power" No. 22 dated June 16, 1998, p. 61

Documents – Power – Kommersant