Rossiiskaya Gazeta: "Government: Transparent and Comfortable"
This is how Vladimir Putin wants to see the tax system.
The Government has come up with a new arrangement for anti-crisis policy: pilot projects for which the ministers will be personally responsible. The Russian Government discussed the first such project, Modernisation of the Pension System, at its meeting yesterday.
Efforts to combat the financial crisis should not push aside ideas for strategic development leading up to 2020, stressed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. In fact, the Government is planning even further ahead. The average pension for a former labourer is to reach 2.5 times the pensioner's official minimum cost of living by 2024. Recent Russian history saw such a ratio during Soviet times, acknowledged Tatyana Golikova, the Minister of Healthcare and Social Development. She explained that the current economic downturn had forced the Government to postpone the advent of the pension paradise from 2020 to 2024.
However, planning so far ahead is an unrewarding task, so the Government has decided to implement the so-called pilot projects. "Based on the guidelines for Government areas of concern up until 2012, about 60 projects will be launched. The project proposals are to be prepared by May 15," said Mr Putin. The ministries will be responsible for implementing these projects, Ms Golikova told RG. "These projects will be rigorously structured in terms of objectives, problems they address, and implementation mechanisms. After the projects are approved, they will be monitored by the Russian Government," the minister told RG. Not all the projects would require government spending. According to Ms Golikova, the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development will soon propose several more high-priority programmes. Some such projects would, for example, provide for drugs for the population, promote healthy lifestyles, and support social welfare.
The Cabinet tried out the new arrangement with the pilot project Modernisation of the Pension System, which Mr Putin described as symbolic. "Unconditional fulfilment of social obligations to citizens is a key government priority", he reminded his subordinates. He said that by 2010, the average pension for a former labourer would be 7,946 roubles, and the social pension would rise to nearly 5,000 roubles.
The Prime Minister also remembered to help the business community. For example, the increase in the Unified Social Tax will be postponed from 2010 to 2011, according to a bill the Government approved yesterday. However, for some enterprises that pay the unified imputed income tax and use a simplified tax procedure, for example, agricultural producers, societies for the disabled, and industrial parks, the tax burden will increase gradually from 2012 to 2015.
Be that as it may, temporary fiscal handouts will have an adverse impact on the revenues of the Pension Fund. According to Ms Golikova, the Pension Fund will be in debt by more than 1.7 trillion roubles next year, although the deficit will decrease to 511 billion roubles in 2011, and to 300 billion roubles in 2012. Nevertheless, the federal budget will cover the deficit in the Pension Fund.
Assistance to the labour market will also rely on government finances. According to Mr Putin, a total of 77 billion roubles will be spent this year to combat unemployment. That money will create more than 1 million temporary jobs, as well as pay for the retraining of 220,000 employees, on-the-job training for 50,000 people, and subsidies to about 16,000 people who must move to other regions where jobs are available. The Government will finally support 52,000 small businesses.
"In spite of the crisis, the promising and in-demand occupations that will be required in the new post-crisis economy must be identified now, and pro-active vocational training and retraining should be directed to these specialities," the Prime Minister said. He also noted that the unemployment situation is improving. In January and February, unemployment was growing at 9% a week, and by March and April the rate had dropped to 1.5%. The total number of people out of work at the end of the year is expected to be 7.8 million.
"Our main task is to prevent massive growth of unemployment in industrialised regions and single-industry towns," the Prime Minister said.
Later that day, Mr Putin chaired a meeting of the Government Commission on Budgetary Projections. He demanded that the budget deficit be reduced from the current 7.4% of GDP to 3% in 2011. Work to improve other economic indicators should also continue; inflation will be down to 8% in three years' time. Government spending should not provoke growth in consumer prices, Mr Putin noted. This year the Government will lose 600-700 billion roubles in taxes because of amendments to the tax legislation. "The tax system must become ever more transparent, easy and comfortable, both for enterprises and for private individuals", Mr Putin stressed.
He said that the stimulating role of taxes must be increased, for example, by improving taxation in the mining industries. He also proposed allowing tax holidays for the new oilfields in the Black and Okhotsk Seas, and a downward tax coefficient for small oilfields. "A differentiated rate of the mining tax will be introduced for coal, depending on the coal grade", Mr Putin stressed.
In the meantime
Yesterday Mr Putin called for spread of the swine flu to be monitored daily. If necessary, additional emergency measures will be taken. He ordered the creation of a commission to combat swine flu last Sunday. According to the Prime Minister, the Russian sanitary services have already taken some measures. For example, they have introduced quarantine at airports.
Pierre Sidibe
