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The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
February 26, 2009. XXV Session of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma
 36 issues on the agenda, including 22 bills.
The Law On public debt of Tomsk Oblast was passed in its final reading. Since the first reading, the basic provisions of the Law have not been changed, although comments of the Legal Department of the Duma and the Tomsk Oblast Prosecutor's Office have been taken into account.
The Law defines the public debt of the Oblast, provides for the types and timeframes of the constituent debt liabilities, and marginal values. The Law also regulates the issues related to debt servicing and repayment.
According to the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, the public debt of a Federation constituent entity cannot exceed 100 % of own revenues. The Tomsk Oblast Law allows for a public debt of 50 %.
The deputies adopted in the first reading the Law On setting of single tax rates applied in Tomsk Oblast under simplified taxation system.
The Law provides for tax differentiation from 5% to 15 % for the businessmen who choose revenues less expenses as a taxable item. At present, there are 5,400 businessmen of the kind and at least 50 % of them can benefit from tax remissions.
It could have been a breakthrough had not there been restrictions and additional conditions to be fulfilled by the businessmen in order to be granted this tax benefit. Lower tax rates were supposed to be directly linked to the monthly average payroll of the employees. For example, for the tax payers who pay their employees at least 8,000 rubles per month on average, a 10% rate is applied; at least 12,000 rubles – 5 % rate. Such restrictions are necessary to compensate for the shortfalls of budget revenues through personal income tax. In the process of the bill examination most of the deputies doubted whether any of the businessmen could benefit from the Law. However, they supported the opinion of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Duma to pass the bill in the first reading, and then refine it in cooperation with the tax authorities and Prosecutor's Office.
Amendments were made to the Law On conditions, amounts, and procedure for payments to medical personnel of rural health posts, and ambulance doctors, paramedics, and nurses. Is it not for the first time that doctors, paramedics, and nurses of the emergency call handling service and rural health posts are provided with additional payments under the Russian Government Resolution. The extra money is paid on the basis of the regional premium rate. Recently, a new Resolution was passed providing for payments on top of the existing ones for record of service in Far North and equivalent regions. Consequently, the federal financing of Tomsk Oblast has increased.
Amendments were made to the Law On 2009 Oblast budget and planning period of 2010 and 2011 to reduce budget deficit and limit amount of the Oblasts' public debt, and redistribute budget allocations among key budget administrators of the Oblast.
In the amended Law the 2009 budget revenues will amount to 30,248,106,000 rubles (including tax and non-tax revenues of 22,362,930,000 rubles), expenses – 32,414,534,500 rubles, deficit – 2,166,428,500 rubles or 9.7 % of the Oblast budget revenues net of financial aid from the federal budget.
One of the deputies Mr. Shpeter raised a question whether Tomsk Oblast is able to subsidize interest rate under mortgage housing programs through state guarantees.
Mr. Fedenev, Head of the Oblast Finance Department, answered that the Oblast budget provides for 600m rubles of guarantees for capital construction and further accumulation of guarantees entails growth of the public debt.
'In the period of crisis any guarantee will become a public debt. We cannot afford increasing our public debt through state guarantees. When we dispose of the previous guarantees, then we will be able to handle this issue.'
During the Governor's Hour Oksana Kozlovskaya, First Deputy Governor, presented to the deputies information on the crisis management activity of the Tomsk Oblast Administration.
One of the deputies Mr. Gromov underlined that at the federal level measures to reduce tax burden for Russian companies are being currently implemented. For instance, severance tax has been reduced. However, according to Mr. Gromov, at the municipal level actions of authorities sometimes disagree with the federal policy: even if tax burden grows smaller the municipalities increase lease payment rates, and eventually the company's burden remains the same. Mr. Gromov is convinced that the Oblast authorities must not neglect this situation. Mr. Aminov backed his colleague concerned with the land tax growth.
Mr. Frenovsky gave an opinion that in view of drop of oil prices and oil production rates in our region, it would be reasonable to appeal to the federal authorities with a proposal to exempt small and medium businesses from taxes for a production period of new fields.
Mr. Chernyshev thinks that during budgeting for 2010 and 2011-2012 planning period it is necessary to reconsider the budgeting methods for municipal entities.
'The crisis has most explicitly revealed continuous negligence in this respect,' said the deputy. 'Precisely, the methods still have few incentives for municipal authorities to establish conditions for business development in settlement territories.'
Boris Maltsev, the Duma Speaker, considers that the crisis management measures shall reasonably include the one reviving the existing enterprises which have been in a standby due to various reasons.
'At Tomsk Petrochemical Plant, the Plant producing large-scale plastic goods was shut down. In Kozhevnikovo village, there used to be a Condensed Milk Production Shop. Today Tomsk Candy Factory purchases condensed milk in bulk in Altai, whereas the funds required for equipment upgrade and restart of Kozhevnikovo production shop are not enormous. There are plenty of such examples. It will be logical to support those active people who will revive these plants and create new employment with minimal cost. This way seems more efficient than the effort to find working places in the "open field", said the Speaker.
The Procedural Rules of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma were amended – the deputies adopted the procedure conditioning the attendance of the Duma sittings and sessions. Now any citizen may attend the committees' sittings and general session of the Oblast Administration. The key aspects of the Procedure are as follows: a citizen may attend only at the invitation of a deputy; a citizen may attend only once a year; a citizen may attend but not participate in the sessions.
The Oblast deputies appealed to the heads of three leading banks to activate mortgage housing loaning in Tomsk Oblast.
The deputies proposed the following conditions for granting mortgage housing loans by branches Sberbank of Russia, Gazprombank and VTB Bank in the Tomsk Oblast territory:
1. Purpose of loan - purchase (construction) of a flat in the primary market.
2. Construction readiness of a house – minimum 30%.
3. The rate of a borrower's own funds shall estimate minimum 10% of cost of the flat to be purchased.
As Boris Maltsev stated, if the banks consider our opinion, then our Oblast Law on welfare payments for purchase (construction) and the City Program for subsidizing interest rate of mortgage housing loans will work more efficiently as well as the Oblast and City Target Programs on regional and federal support for young families to purchase (construct) an accommodation.
Boris Maltsev was awarded with a medal "The Federation Council. 15 Years" for his conscientious work for many years, substantial contribution to implementation of the Federation Council constitutional authority, development and improvement of the federal laws, laws of the RF constituent entities, consolidation of the Russian statehood and due to 15-year anniversary of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly. The award was handed out by Vladimir Zhidkikh, member of the Federation Council of the RF Federal Assembly, representative of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma, Chairman of the Youth Policy and Sports Commission of the Federation Council.
Boris Maltsev expressed his gratitude to the senator and said that this award is a high appreciation of work of the whole Oblast Duma.
Boris Maltsev, Speaker of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma, held a traditional press-conference for journalists during the break.
The Speaker said that in the crisis conditions the deputies do their best to alleviate the impact.
'None of the Oblast social target programs will be cancelled even if the crisis persists and we have launched no less than 15 programs for 868,300 rubles. We increased financing under 3 of the programs, namely, Development of Small and Medium Business in Tomsk Oblast, Development of Innovation Activity, Patriotic Education.'
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