A great number of bills canvassed by the government and president’s administration can suddenly emerge at the fall session of the State Duma.
Photo: Ilya Pitalev
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State Duma Back from Summer Recess
The lower house of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, returns today after the summer recess. The economic highlights of the new season will be the budget, imposing new restrictions on alcohol, gambling and other businesses and the tax pardon. As to the politics, the State Duma will focus on extremism, first of all on the pre-election one, while today’s concern of the deputies is strengthening the military discipline.
The key intrigue of the fall session of the State Duma will be the 2007 draft budget and the budgets of the Pension Fund and the Fund of Social and Medial Insurance. The debates will be heated, as Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin managed to turn down nearly all proposals of United Russia in part of increasing the funding of some programs and the claims could be brought back to life in the fall.
The tax legislation will hardly suffer material amendments this year, as all bills of this kind are usually OKed in spring because of the budget. One of the deputies concerns will be the bill on tax pardon for individuals, which is bound to hit the headlines. The State Duma is likely to pass it, to no avail though. The pardon will hardly draw crowds, as it won’t relieve from responsibility for crimes tied to the tax evasion. Moreover, de-facto legalization of revenues extends only to 2004.
Today’s concern of the State Duma is passing in the third reading the government’s bills targeted at strengthening discipline in the army via reviving the institute of military detention and specifying disciplinary arrest. Pursuant to the bills, the arrest, for instance, could be applied to the military provided there is a special sanction of the court. But Defense Ministry called on the State Duma to shelve passing the bills, so their consideration could be put off for a week.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 06, 2006
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