| From July 1, it is planned to increase the allowances of military personnel The government intends to prevent the outflow of people from the armed forces, rightly believing that the main reason lies in insufficient monetary allowance. On March 6, the State Duma is scheduled to hold the second reading of a government bill raising salaries for people in uniform. On the eve of this event, First Deputy Minister of Finance Alexey Ulyukaev spoke about what, in the government’s opinion, this document should be.
It is planned to increase salaries twice. From July 1 of this year, allowances will be increased by one and a half to two times, depending on rank, and for junior officers the difference will be very noticeable. The second increase was originally planned for 2004, but the government, according to Mr. Ulyukaev, is ready to compromise and begin paying at the increased rate as early as July 1, 2003. At the same time, the increase will affect not only those who are currently serving, but also military retirees.
In other issues, according to the deputy minister, deputies must compromise. First of all, this concerns the preservation of so-called natural benefits. Military personnel have benefits, for example, to pay for housing and utilities. The government insists on the need to abolish them with a simultaneous increase in allowances. According to Mr. Ulyukaev, during the period of high inflation, in-kind benefits were important, but now they need to get rid of them. Moreover, not every military man has his own housing and, therefore, the opportunity to take advantage of the discount on its payment. The government is ready to maintain benefits only for a very limited circle of people, for example, for the families of the deceased, the deputy minister emphasized. From the cabinet's point of view, the Duma members' proposal to introduce compensation for inflation for military personnel is completely unacceptable.
For the first increase, 35 billion rubles should be allocated from the federal budget from July to the end of the year. However, in order to start paying the military in a new way from July 1, the law needs to go through all parliamentary procedures in a very short time. Despite the tough polemics with deputies from the defense committee, the deputy minister has no doubt that this will be the case. The majority of deputies (even from the Defense Committee) understand that they too must make compromises, Alexey Ulyukaev explained to the Vremya Novostei newspaper correspondent Vera SITNINA |
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