towards the regional administration

Yesterday, deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Kama region, in two readings at once, adopted a law proposed by the regional administration, according to which the powers to license the retail sale of alcoholic beverages are transferred from local governments to the regional level. This bill was opposed by the district heads, who believe that with its adoption the quality of local alcoholic products will sharply drop. According to the heads, municipalities exercised stricter control over the process of issuing alcohol licenses. Back in 2004, the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation made a decision according to which only the authorities of the constituent entities of the federation can issue licenses for the right to retail trade in alcohol. Thus, municipalities were deprived of this right. Meanwhile, in accordance with the legislation of the Perm region, adopted in December 1999, the powers to license the retail sale of alcoholic beverages were transferred to local governments. The regional administration announced the need to bring regional legislation into compliance with the federal arbitration decision about a month ago, which caused a mixed reaction from municipal authorities. On the sidelines of the regional administration and the legislative assembly, district heads and city mayors argued that moving licensing to the regional level would lead to local merchants more often selling counterfeit alcohol products.
Yesterday, at a plenary session of the legislative assembly, a number of parliamentarians tried to stand up for municipalities and retain their right to license the retail trade of alcoholic beverages. Thus, deputy Anatoly Ozhegov said that the conclusions of the majority of district heads on this bill were negative. He was answered by parliamentarian Valery Sazanov, who, on the contrary, believed that low-quality vodka was being sold locally. “I often visit my constituency,” explained Mr. Sazanov. – Sometimes not alone, but with guests. What should I treat them with? You can’t buy normal alcohol there, you can’t find products in stores whose quality is beyond doubt.”
Deputy Gennady Tushnolobov found other arguments in favor of transferring licensing rights to the regional level. He said deputies are required to comply with the federal court order. And Deputy Governor Nikita Belykh noted that municipalities would not suffer financial losses from the transfer of licensing rights. As a result, yesterday deputies passed a law in two readings that transfers the authority to license the retail sale of alcoholic beverages to the regional level.
The decision of the regional parliament did not change the opinion of the heads of territories. The mayor of Dobryanka, Igor Leshchev, told Kommersant that now control over the issuance of licenses will be weakened. “When we issued licenses to sell alcoholic beverages, the error rate was quite low. We know each other on our territory. Before issuing a license, I met with each potential licensee. And after all this is handed over to the regional level, can you imagine what kind of queue will line up for licenses? And it will be quite difficult to thoroughly check everyone. I’m afraid that there may now be more “bodied” alcohol,” the official believes. The regional administration believes that it will be possible to talk about the first results of the law no earlier than the beginning of December 2005. The law itself comes into force on July 1.
NIKOLAI IVANOV

Kommersant (Perm) No. 72 from 04/22/2005

Deputies turned alcohol rivers