Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday discussed the anti-crisis plan with the United Russia Party. The party has prepared about 1,000 amendments to the plan, Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov announced proudly.
According to Mr Gryzlov, given shrinking state revenues, the population could join the investment process: the anti-crisis plan should identify 10-15 state-backed priority construction projects. The broad masses could contribute to financing these projects by buying non-inscribed investment bonds, some of which would be issued by the Finance Ministry, Mr Gryzlov elaborated his dream that harked back to the Soviet-era projects of the Baikal-Amur Railway and the Virgin Lands development.
The party's proposal will be examined, the Prime Minister's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov promised. A Finance Ministry official questions the rationale of the whole exercise pointing out that people don't even trust banks. It is hard to harness people's money to state needs, says Nikolai Podguzov of Renaissance Capital.
The population was more or less forced to contribute to economic rehabilitation after the Second World War: the bonds were redeemed 20-30 years later, says FBK partner Igor Nikolayev. Patriotism may prompt people to "shell out for the Olympics or Moscow roads", but there will be no massive demand for bonds, he reasons.
Another thing that worries Mr Gryzlov is the dominance of import: "the figures are appalling <...> 70% of red meat is imported. The import-replacement programme is anything but ambitious, the potential of internal tourism has been underestimated, Mr Gryzlov went on, the cost of living is going up and the price of some goods has grown by 80%."
So far experts have failed to come up with an effective system to monitor pricing, Mr Putin wrapped up the discussion: so it would be logical to tackle the problem at the regional level. The domestic market cannot be closed to imported goods, "it would send domestic prices for staple foods soaring", he noted and promised support for livestock breeding.
The potential for import replacement exists, claims Natalya Zubarevich of the Independent Institute of Social Studies, but because of inflation prices will approach the price of imports, which will hamper import replacement because of the inferior quality of domestic raw materials.
Still, Mr Putin liked some of Mr Gryzlov's proposals. For instance, he backed the idea of preserving export duties for the companies engaged in major timber processing projects and agreed to raise the threshold for the size of small businesses eligible for a 6% simplified taxation system from 20 million roubles a year to 60 million.
By Nadezhda Ivanitskaya, Maria Shpigel