Translated material
Laws from the "long box"
The crisis helped the Ministry of Economic Development to promote long-standing initiatives
The Ministry of Economic Development is ready to report on some points of the implementation of the government's economic recovery plan. As Secretary of State and Deputy Minister of Economic Development Anna Popova said yesterday, the department has already prepared and submitted to the State Duma some of the necessary bills in pursuance of the instructions given by the Prime Minister. These instructions relate to the implementation of 55 points of the plan to improve the economy . The Ministry of Economic Development writes in the explanatory notes to the draft laws: “within the framework of paragraph 2 of the action plan”, “in accordance with paragraph 4”. However, as officials admitted yesterday, most of the legislative innovations were developed a long time ago, but only the crisis helped them see the light of day.Some of the innovations have already been considered in the first reading by the State Duma, some will be proposed to deputies for consideration in the near future. “Legislative initiatives have been developed a long time ago, the crisis has forced us to adopt them more intensively,” said Ms. Popova. The Deputy Minister highlighted the main legislative innovations, including changes to legislative acts on the reorganization of commercial organizations, on the bankruptcy of non-bank financial organizations, on improving collateral legal relations, and on the development of factoring activities. For ordinary citizens, the most interesting changes will be the changes in the procedure for investing funds of “silent people” by the state management company.
Last week, the State Duma in the first reading already adopted a bill simplifying the procedure for reorganizing commercial organizations. It, in particular, provides for the abolition of the ability of creditors to unconditionally demand early fulfillment of obligations during the reorganization of a company. Instead, a mechanism is being introduced to protect the rights of creditors: they will have to justify that the reorganization worsens their situation, and only in this case will they have the right to demand early repayment of obligations. The same amendments will legalize the merger of two organizations of different legal forms (for example, OJSC and CJSC) into one stage. According to current legislation, this happens in two stages: first, companies must be brought into one organizational and legal form and only then can they merge.
By the end of 2008, the ministry hopes, deputies will also approve a bill on improving mechanisms for regulating the insolvency of non-bank financial organizations. It was needed to fill gaps in existing bankruptcy legislation, which does not take into account the specifics of, for example, insurance companies. Innovations will make it possible, in particular, to introduce a simplified procedure for transferring the insurance portfolio, that is, changing the insurer without suspending payments.
Next week, the State Duma will consider in the first reading changes to the bankruptcy procedure related to the settlement of collateral legal relations. The bill will streamline the separation of collateral from the general bankruptcy estate and establish standards for allocating part of the collateral to finance current expenses: no more than 20% of collateral for bank collateral and no more than 30% for other collateral.
And amendments to the Civil Code, abolishing licensing of factoring activities, will be considered by the Federal Assembly in the second reading. Moreover, their first reading took place back in 2006, after which the bill was shelved. But the abolition of licensing was included in the government’s action plan to support the financial market. Therefore, now the State Duma will apparently have to speed up the adoption of amendments.
A long-awaited bill is also expected to expand the list of securities in which the pension funds of “silent people” can be invested. As you know, VEB, as a state management company, has long been seeking the adoption of a corresponding bill. “We are raising the question of expanding the investment declaration and the possibility of differentiating the instruments in which we could invest the funds of the silent ones,” said the head of VEB Vladimir Dmitriev this spring.
Until recently, funds entrusted by citizens to Vnesheconombank for increase could be directed to government bonds. Last year, the list of permitted instruments was expanded to include state-guaranteed mortgage securities, but this did not qualitatively change the situation.
The current changes will make it possible to invest these funds also in Russian corporate bonds with a high rating, securities of federal subjects with a high rating and bank deposits (both ruble and foreign currency) with an appropriate rating. The permission will also apply to mortgage and infrastructure bonds. The Ministry of Finance will develop requirements for the level of ratings of companies in whose securities the pension savings of “silent people” can be invested, taking into account the ratings of foreign and Russian agencies.
At the same time, VEB will be able to allocate funds to two portfolios. By default - into a “liberal” investment portfolio with a wide range of permitted objects for investment. In addition, if desired, a citizen will be able to choose for himself a “conservative” investment portfolio consisting only of government bonds. “We plan that this bill will be submitted to the State Duma in December and can already be considered in the first reading during this session. In the second and third readings, the bill can be approved in the spring session, and we expect that from March 2009 citizens will have an additional right to choose,” said Ms. Popova.
The crisis has not yet “brought” the government to the point of accelerating the adoption of once-discussed measures to encourage the transition of citizens from state management companies to private ones (in some versions of the bill the transition was mandatory). Moreover, not all private companies are likely to survive difficult times. But if the measures taken to improve the economy do not help, then we may well see the implementation of many projects that until recently seemed incredible.