Translated material
Hangover syndrome
The government and the Duma are trying to eliminate the negative consequences of alcohol control
The alcohol market is still awaiting change. While market participants are anxiously awaiting the introduction of alcohol meters, deputies are trying to take measures to “cut off” frankly poisonous alcohol solutions from the market of drinkable alcoholic beverages, the government is trying to separate the FSB from the scandalous vodka issue, the volume of legal retail trade is falling, and the number of counterfeit poisonings is increasing .The next aggravation of the alcohol crisis, expected by February 1, 2007, when alcohol meters were supposed to be connected to the Unified State Automated Information System (USAIS), most likely will not happen. The Ministry of Finance has not yet approved the procedure for their installation, and the government, taught by the lessons of the summer alcohol crisis, simply postponed their introduction until June 1, 2007. True, according to market participants, the problem is unlikely to resolve by summer. The federal state unitary enterprise STC "Atlas", subordinate to the FSB, "famous" for the creation of the notorious EGAIS , has not yet developed software for installing meters. Distilleries, in turn, do not yet purchase expensive meters, as they rightly fear that the software simply does not match the purchased equipment.
At the Atlas enterprise itself, moreover, disturbances are soon expected: the other day it became known that the Atlas Scientific and Technical Center will henceforth be subordinate not to the FSB, but to Rosprom, that is, it will actually become subordinate to the Ministry of Industry and Energy. This follows from the order signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. By separating the enterprise from the vodka theme, it is, apparently, being prepared for new achievements in the field of information technology. For the Atlas Scientific and Technical Center itself, the reassignment turned out to be a surprise.
Meanwhile, the alcohol industry continues to count its losses. In the six months since the beginning of the crisis, manufacturers and dealers have lost about 60 billion rubles, assures the president of the XUAR company, Osman Paragulgov. Retail trade volumes decreased, according to him, by 35%. Counterfeit goods, not taken into account by anyone, never cease to seep onto the shelves. According to calculations by the head of the subcommittee on entrepreneurship in the production and circulation of ethyl alcohol of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Peter Kanygin, if in the total volume of vodka turnover in the country, legal vodka takes up approximately 52%, openly counterfeit 3%, then vodka produced by factories “in the third shift” , and vodka with counterfeit brands account for 17 and 13% of the market, respectively. In addition, according to experts from the Ministry of Economic Development, a strange phenomenon has been observed over the past few months: the amount of alcohol with old brands that is awaiting relabeling is not decreasing, but increasing.
Deputies are trying to take urgent measures in connection with mass cases of alcohol poisoning. On Friday, December 15, the State Duma intends to consider in the second reading amendments providing for mandatory denaturation of non-edible alcohols. As explained by the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Evgeny Fedorov, these amendments will be considered in preparation for the second reading of the bill relating to the circulation of perfume and cosmetic products, and if successfully passed, they will be able to come into force in the new year. Denaturation, according to him, is introduced so that the consumer can identify the poisonous mixture by smell and not confuse poisonous alcohols with ethyl alcohol.
According to one of the authors of the bill, deputy Pyotr Shchelishch, among the additional proposals that may be proposed for consideration by the chamber are equalizing the excise tax rate on all types of alcohol, introducing a mechanism for the minimum price of vodka, tightening the conditions for obtaining a license and liability for illegal trafficking of alcohol.