Agenda: Draft federal laws, budgetary allocations.
Government meeting
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Good afternoon, colleagues. First of all, I would like to say a few words about the tasks formulated by the President yesterday at a meeting on the labour market situation amid the coronavirus epidemic. The President supported a number of proposals on employment prepared by the Government and issued instructions following the meeting.
They concern, in part, extending the period during which people will continue to receive unemployment benefits, increasing the lowest unemployment benefits, increasing the number of families receiving monthly benefits for underage children, paying the largest possible unemployment benefits to sole proprietors, as well as adjusting the legal framework for remote employment.
We must prepare the legal basis for all these initiatives without delay. Mr Grigorenko [Dmitry Grigorenko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation – Chief of the Government Staff], you will organise and personally oversee this project.
Let us move on to our agenda. The key issue concerns presidential payments to doctors, paramedics and medical nurses, plus ambulance drivers who are working with coronavirus patients. We are doing our best so that these people receive these incentive benefits on time and in full.
Today we will be discussing the allocation of inter-budgetary transfers for this purpose to the regions, over 22 billion roubles overall. Of this amount, an additional 2 billion roubles will be paid out to medical and other workers in the form of presidential benefits for May and June. More than 4.5 billion roubles will be allocated for the federal incentive payments to doctors, paramedics and medical nurses in 61 regions for challenging working conditions and overtime. The remaining funds will be kept as a government reserve to be used in case of emergency, so that every single medical worker receives due payment.
Another issue on the agenda concerns the self-employed. We will reimburse the professional income tax they paid for last year, as the President has instructed us to do. We will set aside 1.6 billion roubles for this purpose. I would like to point out that it will not be necessary to submit reimbursement applications to the Federal Tax Service. This will be done automatically. The recipients will only need to download the My Tax mobile application and have a valid bank card where we will transfer the money.
Today,
as part of our efforts to fight COVID-19, we will allocate almost 2 billion
roubles for the construction of three multifunctional medical centres with a
total of 200 beds in Dagestan, where an unfavourable epidemiological situation
still persists. State-of-the-art hi-tech
equipment, including lung ventilators, CT scanners, and other essential medical
equipment will be installed at each of these centres. In addition, laboratories will be equipped to
diagnose infectious diseases. This will make it possible to improve medical
assistance provided to the republic’s residents.
In addition, we will allocate almost 11 billion roubles for the support of our airports. The funds should be primarily used to pay employees’ wages and insurance fees. Please note that this support measure will not apply to airport CEOs and members of the boards of directors. These funds can also be used for the upkeep, repairs and operation of buildings, equipment and transport vehicles, as well as other expenses.
The spending will be supervised by the Federal Agency for Air Transport. This will help to compensate part of the airports’ losses caused by the coronavirus-related slump in passenger air traffic.
I will focus separately on supporting the people, who, in this difficult period, do not think only of themselves and are trying to help strangers who, for various reasons, have been left without support in the COVID-19 environment. I am referring to volunteers, employees of social NGO’s, social workers and just ordinary people who are not indifferent to the problems of others. It is they who, in this lockdown period, take under their protection people with disabilities, senior citizens, orphans and children deprived of parental care, providing for them at home rather than at social facilities. The warmth of direct contact and a sincere interest in these persons’ life stories or needs will have a positive effect on their emotional and physical state.
In this period, from April 1 to June 30, we will support all those who have not stayed on the sidelines and displayed concern for people needing care and attention with monthly payments amounting to more than 12,000 roubles.
I suggest that we move on to discussing issues on our agenda.
