| The Duma is preparing to legislatively delimit budgetary powers between the regions and the center The Committee on Budget and Taxes recommended yesterday that the State Duma adopt in the first reading a government bill on replacing benefits with cash compensation, the first reading of which is scheduled for July 2. According to the committee, “the current regulatory framework governing the provision of social benefits is cumbersome and unsystematized.” It is expected that from 2006 citizens will have the right to choose between benefits and cash. However, from 2005, a system of monetary compensation will come into force. In addition, yesterday the committee considered draft amendments to existing laws, bringing them into line with the division of powers between budgets of various levels since 2005.
It is assumed that the center will take over payments to veterans of the Great Patriotic War, disabled people, Heroes of the Soviet Union, and labor veterans will be in the care of the regions. Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia Tatyana Golikova assessed the expenditures of regional budgets on financing categories of beneficiaries. According to her, expenses will amount to 65-70 billion rubles. annually. Ms. Golikova believes that regional beneficiaries have a much smaller “set of benefits” than federal ones, and argues that the cost of benefits per person per month at the regional level will be a maximum of 250-300 rubles.
Yesterday, the budget committee found a number of shortcomings in the bill that should be eliminated by the second reading. For example, members of the committee recommended that the authors of the law improve the mechanism for providing citizens with necessary medicines.
Speaking at the committee meeting, the Minister of Health and Social Development of Russia, Mikhail Zurabov, noted that only five benefits are important for citizens - free travel on public transport, free travel on the train, a discount on telephone calls, free medicines and sanatorium treatment. “All other benefits are declared,” the minister noted.
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin arrived at the committee meeting somewhat late. He called on deputies to support the government bill to bring Russian legislation into line with the laws on the division of powers between the center and the regions. According to Mr. Kudrin, the government's proposed option for dividing spending obligations between different levels of government is fair. The minister recalled that in the calculations, the level of expenditures in 2003 was taken as the base, and when planning for 2005, expenditures were transferred taking into account actual financing in 2005 and two deflators - for 2004 and 2005. “This suggests that we did not deceive anyone, but transferred as many expenses as were carried out in 2003, taking into account the deflator,” Kudrin said.
The minister suggested that in the future amendments to the Budget and Tax Codes will be adopted, which will consolidate the distribution of revenue sources between levels of government in the context of the division of powers. “Changes to the Budget and Tax Codes will follow the amendments that we are considering now, and we will once again discuss tax and income distribution, and there we will also check these calculations and clarify these approaches. Now, first of all, it is necessary to approve the principles of delineation, and only then finally set up the revenue base,” says Mr. Kudrin. That is, we will first legitimize the financial responsibility of the regions and the center, and then we will look for money. Ksenia VERETENNIKOVA |
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