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The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
October 22, 2009. XXXII Session of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma  48 items on the agenda, including 32 bills.
As always, Boris Maltsev, Speaker of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma, opened the session (opening speech).
In the second reading the deputies approved a procedure of provision of monthly monetary payment to citizens with university degrees working in rural areas who get social support in paying for housing and utility services. From the beginning of the next year those citizens will receive monetary payment instead of discounts. The payment will be provided in advance, i.e. the citizens will receive it in January and pay the January bills in February. In summer 2009 this approach was tested by the Oblast Administration in Kozhevnikovsky District.
Amendments were made to the Oblast Law ‘On social services for citizens in Tomsk Oblast’. The amendments are targeted at social security beneficiaries who use a very popular rehabilitation service 'social taxi'. In accordance with the amendments, if a physically disabled person has got a car or a monetary compensation from the state, they are taken off the list of citizens eligible for the 'social taxi' service. Out of 1,246 beneficiaries (physically disabled people), 170 citizens were granted a car or a monetary compensation in accordance with the Presidential Edict 'On certain measures of social support for physically disabled people'; a number of disabled citizens were provided with cars by social insurance agencies.
The deputies adopted the Oblast Law ‘On 2010 cost of living rate for retired citizens in Tomsk Oblast’. The Law determines additional social payment to the pension of a non-working retired person, which will be provided starting from January 1, 2010 under the Federal Law ‘On state social support’. In 2010, the cost of living rate for a retired citizen of Tomsk Oblast will make up 4,746 rubles (Russian average 4,780 rubles). Given that the regional rate is slightly below the national average, Tomsk Oblast is entitled to obtain a federal subvention of 190m rubles to finance extra social payments to the retired population. In a reverse situation the Oblast Administration would have to allocate funds from the regional budget. According to preliminary estimations, almost 19,000 non-working pensioners in Tomsk Oblast will receive an extra social payment to their pension.
In two readings the deputies adopted amendments to the law ‘On setting of uniform tax rates applied in Tomsk Oblast under simplified taxation system’. The amended law prolongs for another year reduced uniform tax rates imposed on small business entities under the simplified taxation system. The reduced rates are applied to the following categories of organizations and sole proprietors:
1) 5% for taxpayers – residents of the Special Economic Zone of Technical Innovation Type in the territory of Tomsk Oblast;
2) 10% for other taxpayers.
Amendments to the law ‘On transport tax’ were adopted in two readings. Current tax rates have not changed since 2004. From January 1, 2010 they will be higher. For example, current transport tax imposed on an up to 100 HP car is 7 rubles; after January 1, 2010 it will be 9 rubles. In Tomsk Oblast this rate is lower than in many neighboring regions.
In the first reading the deputies approved amendments to the Tomsk Oblast regulatory acts on remuneration of labor of cultural workers. Currently, cultural workers, artworkers, and library workers are paid work experience salary premium as percentage of their base salary. The new labor remuneration system replaces premium percentage with a fixed rate. The deputies believe that those amendments will make the premium calculation method transparent. Moreover, uniform rate of work experience premiums which does not depend on a person's base salary, will put on equal grounds citizens employed in the cultural sphere in cities and rural areas. The deputies raised concerns that this measure could impact cultural workers’ welfare but Andrey Kuzichkin, Head of the Oblast Department of Culture, assured that 38m rubles has been budgeted to ensure smooth transition to the new labor remuneration system.
The deputies approved changes to the Oblast target program ‘Traffic safety in 2007-2009’. Since January 1, 2009 the program has not been financed due to the regional budget cuts. The amendments were developed out of increased concern over higher frequency of road accidents in Tomsk Oblast involving fatalities and serious injuries of adults and children. All those factors led to unfreezing of financing in 2009 in the amount of 3m rubles. The money will be spent on pedestrian fencing at the sites with the highest accident rate, modern traffic lights and traffic control devices, replacement of obsolete traffic lights, contests of junior cyclists ‘Safe Wheel’ and other traffic-related events for children. Also, some money will be spent on publication of illustrated material on safe behavior on roads for nurseries and schools, regional contests for junior traffic inspector teams, and publication of printed material on road safety.
Within ‘A Governor’s Hour’ Aleksey Baryshev, Deputy Tomsk Oblast Governor and Head of Investment Department, reported on measures implemented in order to make the investment environment in Tomsk Oblast more attractive.
He told the deputies about investments in fixed assets from all financing sources in times of crisis. In 2006, the overall investments in the region totaled 38,010.6m rubles; in 2007, 71,640m rubles; in2008, 78,574.1m rubles; in2009, the investments are expected to total 61,900m rubles. Foreign investments in 2006 amounted to 209,082,100 USD; in 2007, 480,189,600 USD; in 2008, 679,215,200 USD; in2009, foreign investments in fixed assets are expected to make up 374,300,000 USD. Last year Tomsk Oblast was the leader of the Siberian Federal District for investments in fixed assets per capita but now it yields the palm to Krasnoyarsk Territory.
A representative of the Administration enumerated the following major investment projects of Tomsk Oblast:
- Tomsk Special Economic Zone of Technical Innovation Type;
- MDF board mill;
- Particleboard mill in Itatka;
- Saw mill and veneer mill;
- METRO shopping mall;
- IKEA shopping and entertainment mall;
- High precision bearings plant;
- Low-pressure polyethylene manufacturing facility construction and upgrade of polypropylene and high-pressure polyethylene plants;
- Residential complex ‘Vostochny’ (‘Sunnydale’) and related engineering infrastructure;
- Facebrick and porous blocks factory in Kopylovo.
Each of the projects involves over a billion rubles investments.
In two readings the deputies adopted amendments to the Oblast target program ‘Development of small and medium business in Tomsk Oblast for 2008-2010’. Before voting Alexandr Kupriyanets, Deputy Duma Speaker, explained that the Tomsk Oblast Guarantee Fund should be increased by 5m rubles by means of reallocation of funds under the program. This should help obtain 95m rubles financing for development of small and medium businesses of the region from the federal budget in 2010.
In the first reading two substantial amendments were made to the Oblast Law ‘On grant and confiscation of land in Tomsk Oblast’. The first amendment has extended the list of citizens having priority to be granted a free land plot for private housing construction. Those citizens now include not only physically disabled people but also people who suffered from exposure to radiation from Semipalatinsk nuclear tests, and liquidators of the consequences of Chernobyl’s accident. The second amendment was made to ensure fair allocation of land plots. It is proposed that a separate list is compiled for each category of beneficiaries and as soon as land plots are available they will be provided to citizens according to their position on the lists in proportion to the list numbers.
The deputies examined in the first reading the so-called 'garage amnesty' bill. Under the federal law, regions can themselves define cases when a land plot can be gratuitously granted to a citizen. The originators of the Tomsk bill suggest that if a person or a cooperative were allocated a land plot for construction of individual cellars, garages, garage complexes before enforcement of the Land Code, and if the structure is used for its intended purpose then the land plot should be gratuitously granted to the persons possessing them. The local authorities will establish a granting procedure. The federal law allows to register the land now only on condition that the garage’s owner has all necessary documents which define the type of right of ownership. The Tomsk City Duma deputies, initiators of the bill, view it as a crisis management tool. They believe that this decision will increase the individual property and land taxable base and will not involve municipal and regional budget expenses.
Boris Maltsev, Speaker of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma, held a traditional press-conference for journalists during the break.
He said that the deputies had a rather busy agenda because a number of laws had to be adopted before the regional budget review for the next year and planning period of 2010 and 2011 as the expenses projected by the deputies for the new laws will automatically be included in the budget. It is very important, at this very session, to define many aspects of the regional budget policy.
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