The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
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October 25, 2012. 13th Session of the Duma of the 5th convocation
The 13th session of the Legislative Duma of the Tomsk Oblast of the 5th convocation took place on October 25. The session was broadcast online. The agenda of the session and the draft wordings of the bills submitted for consideration by the deputies were published on the Duma website beforehand.
Oksana Kozlovskaya, Duma Speaker opened the session with her traditional address to the deputies (The summary of the Speaker’s speech).
DEPUTIES’ STATEMENTS
As always, after the approval of the agenda the deputies made their statements. In his political statement, Anton Sharypov expressed his disagreement with the actions of the security forces towards several oppositioners. Vladimir Kazakov made a statement on the deputy’s right to criticize the government.
NEW DEPUTY
The Duma faction of the Liberal Democratic Party changed leadership. At this session the Duma deputies accredited Sergey Bryansky as the deputy of the Legislative Duma of the 5th convocation. Sergey Bryansky replaced Vitaly Ogleznev who was appointed a civil servant of Tomsk Oblast and thus had to leave the Duma. Sergey Bryansky was elected to the Oblast Parliament on the candidate list proposed by the Tomsk Regional Office of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. The vacant mandate was handed over to him as a candidate from the list.
RANKED THE BEST ON AGRICULTURAL MINISTRY RATING
>dd/>On behalf of the Oblast Duma deputies the Duma Speaker Oksana Kozlovskaya congratulated the Chairman of the Duma Economic Policy Committee Ivan Klyain with a new government award – Gold Medal “For Contribution to the Development of the Agricultural Industry of Russia”. The Russian Ministry of Agriculture awarded such Gold Medals in 2012 to four best people in the agricultural sector of the country, among them Ivan Klyain.
SENATOR OFFICIALLY VACATED HIS SEAT
The deputies passed a resolution on early termination of the authorities of their colleague Igor Chernyshev, Chairman of the Labor and Social Policy Committee of the Tomsk Oblast Legislative Duma. On September 28, 2012 he was elected by secret ballot Representative of the Tomsk Oblast Duma in the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly. His nomination was backed by 32 deputies out of 36.
9 BILLION RUBLES TO MEDICINE
The deputies considered the budget of the Tomsk Oblast Territorial Compulsory Health Insurance Fund for 2013 and the planning period of 2014 and 2015. The deputies budgeted revenues of more than 9.5 billion rubles for the next year, with 93% of the total revenues coming from the Federal Compulsory Health Insurance Fund. All this money will be used to fund the territorial compulsory health insurance program, thus exceeding the 2012 funding by 165%. The subventions from the Federal Fund will also provide funds for the upkeep of the medical organizations in the Oblast and purchasing of equipment worth less than 100,000 rubles.
The Oblast budget will also provide interbudgetary transfers to the Fund in the amount of 536 million rubles to be spent on emergency medical services (except specialized emergency medical services).
The draft 2013 budget of the Fund includes 991.6 million rubles to be spent on salary increases for medical workers in accordance with the Russian Presidential Decree. The normalized reserve funds were budgeted in the amount of 302 million rubles. The Fund’s budget for the next year is balanced and does not have deficit. The forecasted closing balance at the end of 2013 was budgeted in the amount of 3.2 million rubles.
The law on the budget of the Tomsk Oblast Territorial Compulsory Health Insurance Fund was adopted in the first reading.
The deputies adopted in two readings amendments to the law “On provision of interbudgetary transfers”. They decided to make open-ended the existing interbudgetary transfer for the local budgets to provide monetary rewards to municipal educational institutions winners of the innovative educational programs contest.
Another resolution passed by the deputies was to implement a new transfer to provide internet access in public libraries and enhance library services taking into account the task to implement information technology and digitization. Such transfers will be provided from the Oblast budget to the municipal budgets and will be taken from the funds provided to the Oblast budget from the federal budget.
HEALTH INSURANCE FUND BUDGET FOR 2012 INCREASED
The Oblast deputies adopted in two readings amendments to the regional law on the 2012 budget of the Tomsk Oblast Territorial Compulsory Health Insurance Fund. The revenues of the amended budget were increased by 363.2 million rubles and expenditures by 550 million.
The expenditures of the amended budget in 2012 will total almost 8 billion rubles. The adjusted deficit of the budget is supported by internal funding sources and totals 187 million rubles.
FIRST READING OF NEW BUDGET
Aleksander Fedenev, Head of the Oblast Department of Finance presented to the deputies the draft budget for 2013 and the planning period of 2014 and 2015. He described it as “balanced and able to fully support all current commitments of the Oblast”. He called “fairly optimistic” the revenues forecast for 2013 and warned the deputies against potential risks of failure to fulfill the revenues plans.
He listed as risks factors the commitment to increase salary pools of government-funded organizations and the Oblast’s participation in federal target programs, which is not supported by any funds in the Oblast budget.
“If these commitments are handled by means of increasing the debt burden, we risk getting sanctions from the Ministry of Finance and several budget restrictions. I hope, the Conciliation Committee will manage to eliminate some of the risks,” he said.
The draft budget of Tomsk Oblast for 2013 and the planning period of 2014 and 2015 was adopted in first reading.
The revenues and expenditures of the Oblast budget in 2013-2015 were budgeted as follows:
2013 – 40,511,270,100 rubles
2014 – 43,862,968,400 rubles
2015 – 46,563,567,600 rubles
The spending structure was slightly modified. The budget has preserved its social dimension: over 50% of the expenditure is socially-oriented. Social and cultural spending in the Oblast budget for 2013 accounts for 62% (25 billion rubles); spending on national economy, public utilities sector, and environmental protection totals 17% (6.7 billion rubles); national defense, safety, and law enforcement 2% (800 million rubles). The draft Oblast budget for 2013-2015 is balanced and does not have deficit.
REDISTRIBUTION OF TAXES
Increasing own revenues of municipal entities, creating incentives for a sound and sustainable fiscal policy, efficiently utilizing the tax potential of municipal entities – the bill “On setting uniform rates of contributions to the budgets of municipal and city districts of Tomsk Oblast from specific federal taxes” is expected to ensure all that.
It is proposed to enforce the uniform rates from January 1, 2013. The bill defines the following rates:
- 100% of the commonly occurring minerals extraction tax to the municipal and city districts budgets (currently, 75% of the tax contributions is distributed to the Oblast budget and 25% to local budgets)
- 30% of the tax rate applied under the simplified taxation system to the municipal and city districts budgets (currently, 100% of the tax contributions is distributed to the Oblast budget).
The resulting shortfall in the region’s revenues from the redistribution of taxes in 2013 will total 440 million rubles. The combined revenues of the local budgets will grow by around 5.1%.
The deputies unanimously voted to pass the bill in two readings at once.
CURRENT BUDGET ADJUSTED
The deputies adopted in two readings amendments to the laws “On the Oblast budget for 2012-2014” and “On Oblast budget expenditure to support investment and innovation activity in Tomsk Oblast in 2012”.
The total amount of the Oblast budget revenues and spending in 2012 was increased by 543.6 million rubles, the major portion coming from special-purpose federal funding.
The expenditures of the Oblast budget supported by special-purpose federal funding were increased by 559 million rubles.
The revenues of the amended 2012 budget now total 41.5 billion rubles, including tax and non-tax revenues of 32 billion rubles and non-repayable receipts of 9.4 billion rubles (9 billion rubles from the federal budget; 294 million rubles from the Fund for Assistance to Housing and Public Utilities Reform; 900,000 rubles from non-governmental organizations; 100,000 rubles from other sources). The adjusted expenditures are 42.8 billion rubles and deficit 1.2 billion rubles (3.9%).
The total amount of spending on the investment and innovation activity in 2012 was increased by 272 million rubles and now totals 4.4 billion rubles (including funding from the federal budget of 1.4 billion rubles).
Target Program “Clean Water for Tomsk Oblast”
During “A Governor’s Hour” the deputies were presented information on the implementation of the long-term target program by the Tomsk Oblast Administration “Clean Water for Tomsk Oblast 2012-2017”.
Access to clean water for all people in the region is currently one of the most challenging issues facing the region.
Since 2005, the Oblast has been implementing three programs in this area such as “Drinking Water for Tomsk Oblast”, “Modernization of Public Utilities Infrastructure” and the program for social development of rural areas.
In 2012, the Oblast launched its own program under this framework – “Clean Water for Tomsk Oblast 2012-2017”. All projects have funding from the funds of the federal program. The federal budget has provided 29 million rubles under cofinancing arrangements. All facilities are located in Tomsk District.
MORE TAX OPTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESS
A new tax regime – patent-based taxation system – will be introduced in Tomsk Oblast in 2013. Today, the deputies adopted in two readings the law “On patent-based taxation system”.
Recently, the federal government included in the list of special tax regimes the patent-based taxation system. The federal law does not enforce mandatory application of the new taxation system, it only provides one more taxation option for entrepreneurs. The Oblast law-makers adopted the new law taking that into account.
The patent-based taxation system can be applied to 47 types of sole proprietorship activity on a voluntary basis. These activities mostly include personal services, transport services, retail trade, and public catering services. The patent is valid only in the region where it was issued.
Contributions from this tax will go to the budget of the municipal district or city district.
The law was passed in two readings by a majority of votes.
DEPUTIES’ COMMENTS ON THE LAW ON EDUCATION TO BE SENT TO MOSCOW
The Oblast deputies have developed a list of proposals and amendments to the draft federal law “On education in the Russian Federation”.
The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted the draft federal law “On education” in the first reading after three years of discussions. The Tomsk Oblast law-makers developed comments on the wording of the law which, they believe, should be taken into account before the law is adopted in the final reading.
The Oblast Duma Committee on Education, Science and Culture and Duma Council will submit proposed amendments to the draft federal law for consideration at a session of the Tomsk Oblast Legislative Duma. Proposals by the Tomsk Oblast deputies include granting the regions a right to create educational institutions; taking into account public opinion when planning to reorganize of liquidate an educational organization in rural areas; providing the benefits and social security services of educational employees to the heads of educational institutions and school librarians; and including in the standard expenses of educational organizations costs related to providing social support services to students, including dormitory and boarding school costs.
The deputies will approve the proposals at their regular session and send them to the Education Committee of the Russian State Duma for consideration before the second reading of the bill.
USUAL WONDER
The Oblast deputies made available free of charge premises with an area of more than 300 sq. m to the children’s charity fund “Usual Wonder”. Transfer of the Oblast property for a five-year period is provided as part of the social support and security initiative.
The Usual Wonder Fund has been working in the region since November 2008. It has made “wonders” for hundreds of severely ill children. Some received special exercise equipment and learned to walk, some had a trip abroad to get consultations with highly qualified professionals and received more effective treatment, and for others special nutrition was purchased to support their lives.
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