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The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
September 30, 2010. XLII Session of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma
 As always, the Session was opened by Boris Maltsev, Speaker of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma (brief outline of the opening speech).
The Duma deputies extended a number of social laws for the next year.
In 2011 non-working pensioners among rural specialists will be provided with a relief in paying their housing and utility bills.
Also, social assistance is provided to lone parents working in healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Currently, 720 citizens are entitled to social assistance under that Law.
One of the laws extended was the Law ‘On social assistance to certain categories of citizens in Tomsk Oblast in paying public transport fares’. Under the Law pensioners will choose between a single public transport pass or a monetary payment. Next year 102,000 Tomsk Oblast citizens will be able to use this benefit.
The deputies also introduced a concessionary travel scheme which provides free travel on public transport for full-time orphan students of Oblast state educational institutions of primary and secondary vocational education.
The Oblast Law ‘On support for socially oriented non-profit organizations by Tomsk Oblast government bodies’ was adopted in two readings. The Law aims to ensure support for non-profit organizations involved in socially oriented activity in the form of grants provided on a competitive basis. The procedure for giving grants and members of the contest committee are determined by the Oblast Administration.
In two readings the deputies adopted the Law ‘On energy saving and energy efficiency in Tomsk Oblast’. The new law segregates authorities of Tomsk Oblast government bodies, defines types of related programs, and determines the approval procedure.
The Duma introduced amendments to the Oblast Law ‘On corporate property tax’ to release postal organizations from paying property tax in 2010 in order to help them provide material aid to their employees experiencing hardships. According to preliminary estimates, over 300 people are entitled to such aid. The Budgetary and Financial Committee backed the Law as a socially important initiative. Post offices serve many citizens of Tomsk Oblast and in remote rural communities of the region post offices are the only point of communication with the world.
The Oblast Law ‘On setting uniform tax rates applied in Tomsk Oblast under simplified taxation system’ was extended. That means that 6,000 organizations and sole proprietorships who chose the simplified taxation scheme where the taxable base is total income minus total expenses will enjoy reduced tax rates for another year.
Currently, the reduced tax rate for residents of Tomsk Special Economic Zone of Technical Innovation Type is 5% and for other categories of tax payers 10%.
In the first reading amendments to the Law ‘On establishing procedure and standards for logging activities by citizens for own use’ were passed. The draft amendments are aimed at supporting developing private farm holdings with 5 and more cows. There are 110 private farm holdings like this in Tomsk Oblast. The Law guarantees to them free of charge 200 m3 of timber once every 15 years for construction of livestock housing and 50 m3 of timber free of charge every 5 years for barn repairs.
The deputies passed amendments to the Oblast Law ‘On approval of the Oblast Target Program “Development of small and medium business in Tomsk Oblast for the period of 2008-2010”. The amendments are based on the results of the competition annually held among Russian regions to allocate subsidies to regional budgets in 2010 for funding activities in the framework of governmental support for small and medium business. Tomsk Oblast won 24m rubles in the competition.
The deputies also redistributed expenses under the Program. They added a new project “World Bank’s Regional Survey Doing Business in the Russian Federation”. The survey will be carried out in 30 regions of Russian under federal co-financing. In 2009 Tomsk Oblast participated in a similar survey and among 10 Russian regions the Oblast took the 5th position as a region with favorable business environment. (St. Petersburg was the 8th and Moscow the 10th.)
The deputies discussed a number of budget-related issues.
Total Oblast budget revenues and expenditures will grow by 1.19bn rubles. The revenues were increased due to the following.
– Tomsk Oblast was granted additional allocations from the federal budget in 2010 in the amount of 150m rubles (for construction of a dam in Tomsk)
– The Oblast budget received unforeseen corporate income tax payments of 1,040m rubles
The additional revenues will be spent on completing construction and maintenance of the Oblast Perinatal Center and its equipment; development of preschool education infrastructure; capital repairs of the building of a polyclinic in Krivosheinsky District; financing agricultural industry, etc.
The amended budget figures in 2010 are the following: revenues 29.7bn rubles; expenditures 31.1bn rubles; deficit 1.3bn rubles or 6.15% of the revenues not counting non-repayable receipts from the federal budget.
Total Oblast budget expenditures for investment and innovations also grew by 382.2m rubles. After adoption of amendments the expenditures for development of the Oblast in the current year are 3bn rubles.
In the second reading the deputies adopted the Law ‘On reserve fund of Tomsk Oblast’. The reserve fund will become a safety cushion for the Oblast budget in case of a decrease in revenues and interbudgetary transfers from the federal budget; decline in economic activity in the region; irregular tax receipts from the largest taxpayers.
The Oblast Duma approved 14 members of the Public Chamber of Tomsk Oblast. The term of appointment of the current members of the Public Chamber expires November 10, 2010. The Public Chamber consists of 42 members in total; 14 members appointed by the Governor of Tomsk Oblast, 14 by the Council of Municipal Entities of Tomsk Oblast, and 14 by the State Duma of Tomsk Oblast.
In the first reading the deputies considered a bill ‘On housing policy in Tomsk Oblast’. The bill defines authorities of regional and local government bodies of Tomsk Oblast in promoting development of blocks of flats management methods, creation of conditions for providing housing and utility services to people, protection of homeowners’ rights and legitimate interests.
The bill will become a basic law determining the rules of the game in Tomsk Oblast housing sector. This is a very important issue for the majority of Tomsk Oblast citizens. They frequently approach the Duma deputies with questions concerning tariff rates, house management and services quality issues.
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