At the top of the agenda are proposals to simplify the procedure for machine tool producers to obtain subsidies; increasing the mandatory medical insurance coverage of medical equipment procurement; and prolonging the state cashback scheme for children's summer camp programmes.
Opening remarks by Mikhail Mishustin
Meeting with deputy prime ministers on current issues
Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon, colleagues.
Last week, at a meeting with the President, we spoke at length about new measures to minimise the impact of sanctions. It is extremely important to reduce their impact and ensure Russia’s economic and technological sustainability. In this regard, one of the decisions was to support the machine tool industry.
The government will partially abolish the procedure for treasury supervision of state subsidies and investments in this sector. Prepayments for the purchase of the necessary equipment, components and numerical control systems will now go directly to the specific companies’ bank accounts. This will significantly speed up payments under contracts that have been concluded. Businesses will no longer have to borrow or remove their own funds from circulation.
We expect this measure to help ensure the smooth operation of the machine tool industry.
The next measure is to support the national health care system. In any situation, doctors should have everything they need to help their patients. This concerns medical equipment, which may become far more expensive as a result of the restrictive measures. Even so, this equipment must remain available to our hospitals and clinics.
Previously, medical centres could buy equipment worth no more than 100,000 roubles per unit if the purchase was to be covered by mandatory medical insurance. The government is increasing this limit to 1 million roubles. Respective changes are being made to the Programme of State Guarantees of Free Medical Care.
Medical centres will continue to procure various devices, equipment, and other products they need for diagnosis and treatment.
Thanks to this decision, hospitals and clinics will be able to update their equipment in a timely manner, improving the quality of care they provide.
Another important issue discussed at the meeting with the President had to do with children’s recreation.
Spring holidays will begin in many schools soon. Parents are considering how to organise interesting holidays for their children. Of course, they are also thinking about the summer holidays.
As per the President’s instructions, the Government is extending the 50 percent cashback programme for children’s vouchers. The scheme was first used last year to organise summer camp holidays for some 420,000 children, serving as a good support for many families.
The President has instructed us to launch this programme on 1 May. Its implementation will be monitored by my deputy, Dmitry Chernyshenko.
Mr Chernyshenko, tell us please about the organisation of this work.
Dmitry Chernyshenko: Indeed, the cashback programme for children’s summer camp holidays, which has been extended to 2022 by the President’s decision enjoys high demand among our citizens.
It was popular last year, when 420,000 children used it to spend holidays in 2,367 summer camps, as you have pointed out. People spent some 10 billion roubles on these vouchers, getting nearly 5 billion roubles back in the form of cashback.
Acting on your instructions, we have already started preparing to re-launch this programme. Rostourism will send invitations to children’s camps and tour operators to join it, as well as instructions on how to do this.
This year we will use the same mechanism as last year, where parents buy vouchers to children’s summer camps with a Mir card and get a 50 percent cashback paid to their card, but not more than 20,000 roubles per voucher.
There are no restrictions regarding the number of vouchers per child. Each child can go for as many sessions as he or she wants. If parents buy vouchers for three sessions, this will be done in three transactions and the parents will get cashback from all of them. Families sending several children to the camp will get back a 50 percent cashback from each voucher.
We have coordinated this programme with the National Payment Card System (NPCS). Vouchers will be available on the night of 30/31 March. The NPCS has confirmed its technical readiness. As per the President’s instructions, camps will open on 1 May.
All possible platforms will be used to inform our people about the start of this programme. Rostourism will begin an active information campaign in the media as early as today.
We have also asked the NPCS Mir to inform all card holders about the start of the programme. We believe that people will have access to complete information about the scheme and its terms.
Mikhail Mishustin: Thank you, Mr Chernyshenko. It is also important to ensure full compliance with the approved norms and standards during the organisation of children’s holidays.
Please, keep this programme under your personal supervision so that it is available to everyone.
