‘At the end of March we will get all amendments to the Federal law on shared-equity construction and...’

The curator of the Tatarstan deputies in State Duma about the liberalization of the Criminal Code, the extension of the SEZ for Sviyaga and the federal sequestration

Russian State Duma Deputy from Tatarstan Ildar Gilmutdinov told on 1 March about the plans for the adoption of new laws – among the priorities are 130 bills, of which 43 have already been adopted. Among new ones — the liberalization of the Criminal Code, the law on special economic zones, shared-equity construction; development of tourism and culture and others. Gilmutdinov spoke about the upcoming primary election, where he runs as a candidate.

Equity holders will be transferred to escrow accounts

One of the first priority initiatives, the coordinator of the parliamentary group of Tatarstan and a deputy of the Legislative Assembly Ildar Gilmutdinov told about, was the draft bill ' On amendments to the Federal law 'On participation in shared-equity construction of apartment houses and other real estates and on amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation' and certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation'.

Dmitry Medvedev brought the draft law on 15 December 2015, and it was adopted at first reading on 19 February 2016. In particular, it is about a direct linkage of own funds of companies with construction funds, or the minimum amount at 1 billion rubles.

Among other innovations – the use of escrow accounts in settlements with equity holders (when the use of funds is possible only after the fulfillment of certain conditions), as well as a wide range of restrictions on the use of borrowed funds.

The draft law is about a direct linkage of own funds of companies with construction funds. Photo: Maksim Platonov

Within 45 days State Duma will adopt amendments to the bill. At a press conference, Gilmutdinov told about the prospects for the adoption of these amendments.

'I am sure nobody will procrastinate with the law, we understand its relevance. At the end of March, we get all the amendments from all interested parties and, I hope, in April it will be adopted. There are procedural rules, we must enable everybody to amend,' noted Gilmutdinov.

The Criminal Code awaits liberalization

This year, the deputies are planning to liberalise the Criminal Code for minor crimes. Commutation awaits alimony payers, non-payers of fines, as well as people is charged with an offence the first time.

For example, if previously for a theft at more than a thousand rubles a thief was brought to criminal penalty, now this threshold is raised to 5 thousand rubles.

At first reading, the bill on liberalization of the Criminal Code was adopted. Photo: nnews.nnov.ru

However, there will be not only a commutation. The bad news awaits the sellers of counterfeit alcohol. As Gilmutdinov told, deputies are planning to raise fines for selling unlicensed goods to several million rubles.

Judicial practice is following — if an individual is charged for such acts, the penalty – 5 thousand rubles. To avoid it, a serious penalty is needed, at some million rubles. If it won't help, the next step is a criminal prosecution.

The reason of the commutation is, as Gilmutdinov explained, a poisoning with surrogate alcohol.

The SEZ will be extended

Another important bill for Tatarstanis the law on special economic zones.

'The new bill concerns the zone Alabuga, Innopolis. There are proposals from the Republic to allow logistic activities within the SEZ, to remove limitations in 40 km. We give the government the right to increase this area to other businesses to start up. Plus, regional special economic zones appears there,' told Gilmutdinov. It is clear that the law concerns the Sviyazhsky Interregional Multimodal Logistics Center.

Besides, in the framework of realization of Federal programmes we expect the restoration of the Azimov mosque and the Peter and Paul Cathedral, as well as the temple-monument to the heroes at Kazanka River.

In the framework of realization of Federal programmes we expect the restoration of the temple-monument to the heroes at Kazanka River. Photo: prokazan.ru

There were negative news as well, according to the deputy, the federal programmes were cut by 10%, however, Tatarstan continues to participate activelyin them. To sum up the speech, Ildar Gilmutdinov told that a package of bills, that is aimed to support the economy, was brought before the Duma, however, he did not specify what the government proposed exactly.

Answering the journalists' questions, Gilmutdinov commented that, in his opinion, we should abandon the mandatory health insurance so that money would go directly from taxes to the doctors (without intermediaries), he noted the pensions issue – every year the number of pensioners grows, and to pay them pensions it is getting more and more difficult for the budget.

Elections, elections

A special topic, that has raised the interest of journalists, was the upcoming elections to the State Duma. Ildar Gilmutdinov has declared about his participate in the primary elections of the United Russia (the current ruling political party in Russia). There are 12 candidates we are aware of.

Answering the questions, Gilmutdinov emphasized the fact that the deputy should be 'local', related to the Republic, that electors could 'find him and ask'.

He asked to be more careful while choosing entrepreneurs and to select professionals as people's representative. He called the current deputies to assess the benefits from the elected officials; however, he refused to evaluate colleagues himself, not only in a negative but also in a positive way.

Nothing he said about the strategy of the United Russia in single-seats districts, whether the familiar people will be appointed or the party will use some other tactic.

By Aleksander Tretyakov