The agenda includes additional measures to ensure sustainable development of the economy during the spread of the coronavirus, to support families with children, and individual programmes for the development of the regions for 2020–2024.
Excerpts from the transcript:
Meeting with deputy prime ministers
Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon, colleagues,
Last week Vladimir Putin announced additional anti-crisis measures: direct financial aid to people and businesses that can help preserve employment and incomes. We have developed the plan for additional activities based on the President’s initiatives and discussed it at a Government meeting.
We have submitted several bills to the State Duma, and the parliamentarians discussed them quickly and they were adopted last Friday. I mean amendments to the Tax Code. They introduce income tax exemptions for additional payments to doctors treating patients who are ill with the coronavirus and increase the level of revenue beyond which income tax needs to be paid once a month, rather than once a quarter, from 15 million to 25 million roubles.
We also suggested amending the Budget Code. These amendments will provide the regions with the opportunity to distribute the federal money allocated to counter the coronavirus in order to address those social and economic issues they believe critical right now. Moreover, next year the regions will be able to borrow from each other, using horizontal budget loans. Amendments were also made to the Federal Law No 44. We removed excessive bureaucratic demands from the state procurement process.
I would like to thank the State Duma and the Federation Council for working together. Thanks to the Government and the parliament’s smooth cooperation, we can provide rapid support to people and the economy, help businesses and preserve employment.
Colleagues, I am asking you to finalise the necessary legal framework as quickly as possible so that the new norms can come into effect promptly, in the interests of the population and the economy and to intensify the effect of the previous measures. It is important now that the most hard-hit enterprises, small companies above all, begin receiving financial aid from the state.
In order to support and preserve jobs, we will expand the effect of non-interest loans to pay wages for medium-sized and large businesses in the hard-hit industries. As of today, these loans are only available for small and micro-sized enterprises from these industries. VEB.RF is already providing guarantees worth up to 100 billion roubles on these loans. Decisions on additional guarantees will be made soon.
We are continuing to help the regions to counter the spread of the coronavirus.
In late March, over 33 billion roubles were allocated to 77 Russian regions to re-profile the stock of beds at medical institutions.
We have expanded the rules for using this money. Now the regions will be able to spend the funds on the installation of special equipment, including mobile oxygen plants and individual protective gear for medical personnel.
Last Friday I signed the Governmental directives to allocate a further sum of more than 32 billion roubles to the regions and about 3.5 billion roubles to federal executive bodies to equip and upgrade the stock of hospital beds to counter the coronavirus.
I would like to ask Anton Siluanov whether this money has reached the regions.
Anton Siluanov: Mr Mishustin, under your instruction on Friday, the amounts allocated to the Russian regions to modernise and expand the available hospital beds have been transferred. Allocations have also been made to the federal ministries and agencies that need to implement modernisation.
Mikhail Mishustin: Colleagues, please note that we are allocating significant amounts of money to the regions. And we are doing so based on the estimates made by the regions themselves. These funds should be used as efficiently as possible. The President has repeatedly spoken about this.
However, a number of regions have not even used the first tranche yet. In many regions, according to the Treasury, cash execution for modernisation budgets is below 10 percent. This is the case in the Tver, Belgorod, Tyumen, Novgorod, and Kaluga regions, the Kamchatka Territory, the Republic of Sakha and others. Steps must be taken to rectify the situation.
The regions must be as prepared as possible to provide qualified medical assistance to coronavirus patients. I ask you to minimise the formalities. Applications must be processed promptly. Furthermore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade needs to work more actively with the regions, including on the supply of necessary equipment. This issue is under our special control.
Colleagues, in the coming days, I plan to hold a meeting with the heads of the regions to check on where the regional authorities stand in their preparedness to help infected patients. And if somewhere this work is too slow, we need to understand the reasons and quickly make the necessary decisions.
Now a few words about measures to support families with children. The President has repeatedly spoken about this in his addresses. We are making every effort to ensure that families with children receive all the payment benefits they are entitled to in a timely manner. Since April 15, parents can obtain their maternity capital certificates without spending time filing applications and, most importantly, without leaving home. The Pension Fund will independently request data from civil registry offices both about a newborn and about the parents, they will verify it and notify the applicant on their personal account on the Gosuslugi.ru government services website and by the telephone number entered in that account. At the same time, it is still possible to apply in person at the Pension Fund or at their local municipal services centre.
According to the Ministry of Labour, in less than a week, almost 5,500 families have received their maternity capital certificates without applications. Remote application is also possible for other benefits to families with children. Parents can apply remotely for the recently instituted 5,000 rouble benefit for each child under 3 aimed at supporting families in this difficult situation.
Another important item is the individual development programmes for 2020–2024 that the Government approved for 10 regions with the most difficult socioeconomic situation – the Pskov and Kurgan regions, the Altai Territory, the Republics of Altai, Adygea, Kalmykia, Karelia, Mari El, Tyva and Chuvashia. Their support and development is a priority, and we began addressing this at the beginning of the year. Until 2024, each of these 10 regions will receive 5 billion roubles from the federal government for the implementation of individual development programmes. In this difficult situation, these regions are particularly vulnerable. We will take the necessary measures to support the local population and provide people with jobs. It is extremely important to find new points of economic growth in these territories – these are the main goals of the programmes.
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