March 29. The 7th Session of the Duma of the 5th convocation

The session was broadcast online. The agenda of the session and the bills submitted for consideration by the deputies were published on the Duma website beforehand. Duma Speaker Oksana Kozlovskaya gave an opening address (Excerpts from speech).

OBLAST DEPUTIES DELIVERED THEIR STATEMENTS

Ivan Klyain raised the issue of banning heavy trucks from motor roads during the bad weather season and raising truck overweight fines. He reminded that such measures seriously impact business activity and suggested taking such important decisions only after consultations with the business. He also suggested adopting a coordinated approach within the framework of the Siberian Agreement and developing at the federal and regional levels a mechanism of issuing free and paid passes for heavy trucks in springtime.

Aleksander Kadesnikov gave a different opinion. Those measures, he said, help protect regional motor roads.

HONORARY CITIZEN ALLOWANCE INCREASED

The deputies amended the Oblast Law “On awards and honorary titles in Tomsk Oblast”. They increased the amount of monthly allowance from 25 000 to 50 000 rubles for the individuals bestowed with the title “Honorary Citizen of Tomsk Oblast” upon attainment of the age of 85. Currently, the law applies to five individuals. They are Gennady Voroshilov, Anatoly Vysotsky, Stepan Zaitsev, Egor Ligachyov, and Piotr Pronyagin. Additional budget expenditure will be 1.1m rubles.

FIRST AID LAW BROUGHT IN LINE WITH FEDERAL REQUIREMENTS

The Oblast deputies introduced amendments to the law on first aid measures to bring a number of provisions of the law in line with the corresponding federal legislation. The term “emergency aeromedical services” was replaced with the term “specialized emergency medical services”. According to the federal legislation, emergency medical services include medical evacuation, i.e. transportation of seriously ill or injured persons using air, land, water, and other means of transport.

The law was also brought in line with the federal Law “On general principles of local government organization in the Russian Federation”. The amended Oblast law clarifies the procedure of funding the delegated powers – by means of the Oblast budget subventions to the budgets of the municipal and city districts of Tomsk Oblast.

HOUSING FOR ORPHANS

The deputies backed a decision to allocate funds from the Oblast budget to provide housing for orphans and passed relevant amendments to the Law “On provision of interbudgetary transfers.”

The local budgets will receive interbudgetary transfers to fund enforcement of judicial decisions related to the provision of housing to orphans, children deprived of parental care, and individuals who lack a fixed and regular residence. In 2012, the Oblast budget will allocate 51,578,600 rubles to enforce relevant judicial rulings.

GOVERNOR’S HOUR

For the first time Sergey Zhvachkin attended the session of the Oblast Duma in his capacity as the Governor of Tomsk Oblast. During “A Governor’s Hour” he delivered an address to the deputies and commented on his first steps as the Governor of Tomsk Oblast.

A new section – “Tomsk Oblast Governor’s comments” – appeared on the official website of the Tomsk Oblast Administration. There the Governor will “post comments on the decisions taken. I believe, it is very important not only to inform the people of what the head of the region does but also explain his motives and the reasons that drive this or that managerial decision.”

The Governor brought up the issue of relocating people from unfit and old housing and put forward a number of constructive proposals for discussion.

He also spoke about provision of urban amenities in the city of Tomsk, creation of a recreational infrastructure, working with investors on the infrastructure, and attracting global retail networks and brands.

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE FOR IMMIGRANT CHILDREN

The deputies passed amendments to the Law “On provision of interbudgetary transfers” regarding funding of a new educational project to teach Russian language to immigrant children in Tomsk schools.

The goal of the project is to adapt immigrant children to the educational environment in the schools in Tomsk Oblast. According to the Department of Education, there are 414 immigrant school students in Tomsk Oblast, out of them 360 go to school in the Oblast center. Group (four hours a week) and individual (one hour a week) classes will be held to teach migrant children Russian. The groups will be formed on the basis of the actual need to receive the training.

Budget money will be spent on teachers’ salaries, course materials, and schoolbooks. The classes will take place in the period from February through May 2012.

The initiative costs 2.4m rubles and will be financed through reallocation of budget funds.

ATTRACTING AN INVESTOR

The Oblast deputies approved a transfer for Tomsk District to carry out a feasibility study under the project of building an industrial park in Kopylovo. The project is part of the initiative to create an attractive investment climate in Tomsk District by building an industrial park with an area of 80 hectares there. A glass factory will be built there in cooperation with a big Japanese company. It is proposed to allocate 4.3m rubles for geotechnical investigation and land surveying work which will become the basis for design specifications and cost estimates. The implementation of the law will not require additional Oblast budget spending since the transfer is allocated from the Investment Fund of Tomsk Oblast.

The deputies passed another bill regarding the improvement of the investment climate in Tomsk Oblast. The amendments to the Law “On government support of the investment activity in Tomsk Oblast” extend the list of entities involved in investment activity. Before, legal entities jointly implementing an investment project could only qualify for government support if they united by entering into a cooperation agreement (simple partnership agreement). As economic relations evolved, legal entities adopted different contractual models of collaboration over investment projects, such as the investment project management agreement, special purpose funding agreement, and services agreement.

In accordance with the amendment, several legal entities not bound by any cooperation (simple partnership) agreement but jointly implementing an investment project which increases the tax base and creates new jobs in Tomsk Oblast shall be deemed a single investor.

The bill was passed unchanged in two readings.

NEW BUDGET

The 2012 Oblast budget revenues and expenditures were increased by 2.3bn rubles. The budget has remained deficit-free.

The deputies adopted amendments to the Oblast Law “On the Oblast budget for 2012 and the planning period of 2013 and 2014”. New numbers are 1,654,369,200 rubles of non-repayable receipts from the federal budget and 671,637,000 rubles of tax and non-tax revenue.

The revenues and expenditures of the amended budget for 2012 now total 38.8bn rubles.

SUPPORT FOR RURAL DWELLERS

The deputies delegated to local government bodies more powers related to provision of government support to farming enterprises by means of reimbursing private farmers for the cost of agricultural machinery and equipment (additional subsidy). The initiators of the amendments intend to increase the accessibility and effectiveness of budget funds to sponsor the development of private farms. Norm calculation methods in an appendix to the law were amended accordingly.

The bill also extends loans obtained in 2012 as part of the initiative to provide government support to private farmers, agricultural consumer cooperatives, and farming enterprises by means of reimbursing the interest rate on loans.

The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast

March 29. The 7th Session of the Duma of the 5th convocation