Putin Offers Tax Relief In Speech
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered more cash to households, a delay in increasing social security taxes to businesses and support for his finance and defense ministers amid Communist fury in a groundbreaking report to the State Duma on Monday.
Putin, accompanied by all the Cabinet ministers, spoke to an almost full house — 437 of the 450 deputies — in the first completion report by a prime minister before the Duma, a measure demanded last year by President Dmitry Medvedev.
"This is one more step toward developing our political system," Putin said as he opened his 65-minute speech. "This is very important."
Putin reiterated key elements of the government's anti-crisis plan for this year, took 12 questions from the four Duma factions and listened to comments from faction leaders, including an angry tirade by Communist Party chairman Gennady Zyuganov.
Putin announced that mothers that are entitled to special maternity payments from the state would be able to spend 12,000 rubles ($362) of the money this year.
The state in 2007 began allocating 250,000 rubles in so-called maternity capital to every mother who bears a second baby, but the money has to stay in bank accounts for three years after being deposited, with a recent exception that allows mothers to spend the money to pay off mortgages beginning this year.
It was not right now clear how much cash Putin's move on Monday would inject into the economy.
The World Bank last month recommended that Russia spend more to support low-income families amid the economic crisis.
Approving a delay sought by businesses, Putin pushed back the increase in social security taxes from next year to 2011. Under the previous oversight plan, companies would pay three taxes to the Pension Fund, the Social Security Fund and the Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund instead of the Unified Social Tax. The total payment would go up to 34 percent of payroll from the current 26 percent.
The tax will be split into the three fees next year as planned, but the 26 percent ceiling will stay in place until 2011, Putin said.
The Pension Fund will lose 780 billion rubles next year as a result of the measure, Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova said.
It will make up for the loss by drawing money from the federal budget and the National Welfare Fund, she said.
Putin defended banks, often criticized for their lending policies, by telling the deputies, "You may call them whatever — fat cats and so on, but this is a very important sector of the Russian economy."
One of the most contentious points in the three-hour session came when Zyuganov criticized the government's policy of continuing to increase — at a restrained pace — regulated prices for gas, rail transportation and intensity.
"The poor will become poorer," he grumbled, wearing a Soviet-era pin on his lapel that proclaimed him a people's deputy of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. "Half of the country won't pay. They aren't going to be able to afford to pay."
Zyuganov picked Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin as the culprit, saying Putin could fix poor policies by reshuffling the Cabinet.
"If Kudrin continues to manage finances … we will be left not with a safety cushion but an empty, dirty pillow cover," Zyuganov said, referring to the Reserve Fund that the control is tapping this year to plug the budget deficit.
Zyuganov also attacked Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, a former tax official, for his lack of military acquaintance and Education Minister Andrei Fursenko for pushing a school exam system that, he said, has met furious stubbornness from teachers.
Putin, when he took the floor again to sum up the exchange, defended Kudrin as a skilled finance expert. He said Serdyukov's nonmilitary qualifications did not prevent Russia from quickly winning the brief war with Georgia in August. He did not comment on the criticism of Fursenko.
Banning hikes in regulated prices would force related companies to slow down investment, thereby reducing overall demand in the economy, Putin argued. The oversight decided not to halt thitherto planned hikes in fervency prices because this would have meant "deceiving" foreign investors who are planning to develop their Russian ardour assets, Putin said.
Zyuganov said after the session that he was pleased that Putin and the ministers had showed up for the report and listened to the criticism. A Just Russia faction leader Nikolai Levichev said Putin was able to project an assuring picture of the Cabinet's efforts to fight the crisis.
Putin, accompanied by all the Cabinet ministers, spoke to an almost full house — 437 of the 450 deputies — in the first completion report by a prime minister before the Duma, a measure demanded last year by President Dmitry Medvedev.
"This is one more step toward developing our political system," Putin said as he opened his 65-minute speech. "This is very important."
Putin reiterated key elements of the government's anti-crisis plan for this year, took 12 questions from the four Duma factions and listened to comments from faction leaders, including an angry tirade by Communist Party chairman Gennady Zyuganov.
Putin announced that mothers that are entitled to special maternity payments from the state would be able to spend 12,000 rubles ($362) of the money this year.
The state in 2007 began allocating 250,000 rubles in so-called maternity capital to every mother who bears a second baby, but the money has to stay in bank accounts for three years after being deposited, with a recent exception that allows mothers to spend the money to pay off mortgages beginning this year.
It was not right now clear how much cash Putin's move on Monday would inject into the economy.
The World Bank last month recommended that Russia spend more to support low-income families amid the economic crisis.
Approving a delay sought by businesses, Putin pushed back the increase in social security taxes from next year to 2011. Under the previous oversight plan, companies would pay three taxes to the Pension Fund, the Social Security Fund and the Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund instead of the Unified Social Tax. The total payment would go up to 34 percent of payroll from the current 26 percent.
The tax will be split into the three fees next year as planned, but the 26 percent ceiling will stay in place until 2011, Putin said.
The Pension Fund will lose 780 billion rubles next year as a result of the measure, Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova said.
It will make up for the loss by drawing money from the federal budget and the National Welfare Fund, she said.
Putin defended banks, often criticized for their lending policies, by telling the deputies, "You may call them whatever — fat cats and so on, but this is a very important sector of the Russian economy."
One of the most contentious points in the three-hour session came when Zyuganov criticized the government's policy of continuing to increase — at a restrained pace — regulated prices for gas, rail transportation and intensity.
"The poor will become poorer," he grumbled, wearing a Soviet-era pin on his lapel that proclaimed him a people's deputy of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. "Half of the country won't pay. They aren't going to be able to afford to pay."
Zyuganov picked Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin as the culprit, saying Putin could fix poor policies by reshuffling the Cabinet.
"If Kudrin continues to manage finances … we will be left not with a safety cushion but an empty, dirty pillow cover," Zyuganov said, referring to the Reserve Fund that the control is tapping this year to plug the budget deficit.
Zyuganov also attacked Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, a former tax official, for his lack of military acquaintance and Education Minister Andrei Fursenko for pushing a school exam system that, he said, has met furious stubbornness from teachers.
Putin, when he took the floor again to sum up the exchange, defended Kudrin as a skilled finance expert. He said Serdyukov's nonmilitary qualifications did not prevent Russia from quickly winning the brief war with Georgia in August. He did not comment on the criticism of Fursenko.
Banning hikes in regulated prices would force related companies to slow down investment, thereby reducing overall demand in the economy, Putin argued. The oversight decided not to halt thitherto planned hikes in fervency prices because this would have meant "deceiving" foreign investors who are planning to develop their Russian ardour assets, Putin said.
Zyuganov said after the session that he was pleased that Putin and the ministers had showed up for the report and listened to the criticism. A Just Russia faction leader Nikolai Levichev said Putin was able to project an assuring picture of the Cabinet's efforts to fight the crisis.
