Monitoring of the Federal Legislation dated 25.04.2005

Message of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of April 25, 2005

The Message of 2005 elaborates and makes more specific the previous Message of 2004 forming together a uniform program of actions for the nearest decade.

One of the main tasks is improving efficiency of state management, strict observation of legislation by state servants, providing quality services to the population by them. The following major task in the order of significance is strengthening of the Russian Federation, envisaging, in particular, a further enlargement of the subjects of the Russian Federation. The third task is an active policy of liberalisation of entrepreneurial environment.

Specially emphasised is the work of the tax and customs bodies. A priority in their activities must be the checking of execution of the tax and customs legislation rather then fulfilling "plans" of collection of taxes and fees. The Message also emphasises expediency of abolishing of the tax on the inherited property.

Federal Law No. 39-FZ of April 22, 2005 on the Amendments to the Federal Law on the Fundamentals of the System of Prevention of Unattended Behaviour and Delinquency of the Underage

Bad social behaviour of the underage shall include also systematic consumption of alcoholic and alcohol-containing products, beer and drinks on its basis (earlier, alcoholic drinks). In this case, the beer and drinks on its basis imply beer with the content of ethyl alcohol greater than 0.5% of the volume of the finished product and the drinks made on its basis with the mentioned content of ethyl alcohol.

Federal Law No. 38-FZ of April 22, 2005 on the Amendment to Article 12.24 of the Code of Administrative Violations of the Russian Federation

Provides a new wording for Article 12.24 of the Code of Administrative Violations of the Russian Federation "Violation of Traffic Rules or the Rules of Operation of a Transport Vehicle Inflicting a Light or Average-Degree Damage to the Health of the Victim". The Article shall include also and average-degree damage to the health of the victim. Such damage implies an administrative fine in the amount of 15 to 25 minimum amounts of labour remuneration or revocation of the driver's license for the period of 6 months to 1 year. The average-degree damage is implied to be a prolonged health impairment without jeopardising the human life or a significant stable loss of the general working ability by less than one third.

Federal Law No. 37-FZ of April 22, 2005 on the Amendment to Article 19 of the Federal Law on the Status of Servicemen

Students of military institutions of the secondary and higher professional education, before they conclude a contract for the military service, and the persons undergoing studies in general educational institutions with an additional military training for the underage may enjoy exemptions when they visit paid events organised by institutions of culture and sports.

Federal Law No. 36-FZ of April 21, 2005 on the Amendments to the Federal Law on the Funerals and Obsequial Activities

The amendments are aimed at legislative introduction of the norms pertaining to the creation and functioning of the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery, military memorial cemeteries and other burial places for the military envisaged in the Law of the Russian Federation No. 4292-1 of January 14, 1993 on the perpetuation of the memory of the diseased defendants of the Fatherland".

The Federal Law solves legal issues of destination, creation, agency affiliation and procedure of operation of the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery and other memorial military cemeteries.

Federal Law No. 35-FZ of April 21, 2005 on the Amendment to the Federal Law on the Higher and Post-Graduate Professional Education

Students of the federal state higher educational institutions of intra-mural studies getting education at the expense of the federal budget shall have their stipends increased from Rbl 400 to Rbl 500 from April 1, 2005 and up to Rbl 600 from September 1, 2005.

The Federal Law is entered into force from April 1, 2005.

Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 449 of April 20, 2005 "Issues of the Accumulated Mortgage System of Housing Support for Servicemen"

The Government of the Russian Federation is ordered to create a federal state institution "Federal Department of Accumulated System of Housing Support for Servicemen" to be unsupervised by the Ministry of Defence of Russia. Servicemen assigned to the mentioned federal state institution to positions with lower salaries shall preserve their salaries as of the earlier occupied positions before they may get higher salaries. Besides, such servicemen shall also get the earlier available additional payments.

The Decree is entered into force from the day of its signing.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 246 of April 21, 2005 on the Endorsement of the Rules of Reimbursement to Operators of Multiple Services of Losses Incurred Through Such Services

The losses shall be reimbursed in the amount not greater than the amount of reimbursement of losses specified in the contract for the multiple services concluded as a result of the contest, or the maximum amount of reimbursement of losses if the duty to provide the service was vested in the communication operator by the Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation.

To determine and substantiate the amount of losses incurred through the rendering of multiple communication services, the operators of multiple services must keep separate records of incomes and expenses for the carried out types of activities for each subject of the Russian Federation where the multiple services are provided.

Reimbursement of losses shall be vested in the Federal Agency of Communication at the expense of the Reserve for Multiple Services.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 244 of April 21, 2005 on the Endorsement of the Regulation on the Composition, Procedure and Time Limits of Submission of Information on the Debts for Entry in the State Book of Debts of the Russian Federation

Defines the composition, procedure and time limits of submission of information on the debts in the form of the state loans implemented through the issue of securities in the name of the Russian Federation, as well as in the form of credit contracts concluded on behalf of the Russian Federation as a borrower, for entry in the State Debt Book.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 243 of April 21, 2005 on the Endorsement of the Rules of Generation and Spending of Resources of the Reserve for Multiple Services

The sources of generation of resources of the reserve are obligatory deductions of communication operators rendering communication services in a public-use communication network and other sources not prohibited by the law. Communication operators shall deduce on the quarterly basis 1.2% of the resources, the amount being estimated as the difference between incomes from the rendered services in a public-use communication network and incomes from the rendered services of connection and services of traffic transfer in a public-use communication network. The mentioned difference of incomes does not include the amounts paid out in the form of the value added tax. Deductions to the reserve are effected at the end of each quarter no later than the 30th of the month following the last month of the expired quarter.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 242 of April 21, 2005 on the Endorsement of the Rules of State Regulation of Tariff Rates for Multiple Services

Defines the procedure and principles of regulation of tariff rates for the multiple services. Regulation applies to tariff rates for the following multiple communication services: providing local telephone connections using paid telephones; data transfer and Internet connection using collective-access points.

Tariff rates are calculated by the Federal Agency of Communication when they decide to arrange a contest for the multiple communication services and are included in the contract for multiple communication services.

Tariff rate per minute of local telephone connection using a paid telephone is determined as a ratio of the minimum of the amounts of user fees specified by the Federal Service of Tariff Rates of Russia in the subject of the Russian Federation to the average monthly volume of local telephone connections of the users of the local telephone network taken into account when calculating the mentioned user fee.

Tariff rate per megabyte of data when rendering the services of data transfer in Internet collective-access points is determined as a product of the tariff rate per minute of local telephone connection by the time necessary to transfer 1 megabyte of data with the transfer rate of 19.2 kb/s.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 241 of April 21, 2005 on the Measures to Arrange Multiple Communication Services

The rendering of multiple communication services is vested in a communication operator providing communication services in a public-use communication network on the basis of the contract concluded with the Federal Agency of Communication as a result of the contest or on the basis of the Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation. The communication operator having concluded the contract must start providing multiple communication services no later than within 6 months from the date of concluding the contract.

Order of the Federal Service for Financial Markets No. 05-3/pz-n of March 16, 2005 on the Endorsement of the Licensing Procedure for the Types of Professional Activities at the Securities Market

The Order regulates relations between the Federal Service for Financial Markets of Russia and legal entities pertaining to the licensing of the types of professional activities at the securities market. The endorsed procedure is used to license broker, dealer, depositary, clearing activities, as well as activities in the management of securities, keeping of the Register of Holders of Securities and organisation of trade at the securities market and/or stock exchange. When applying for the first time, the applicant gets the license valid for three years. Unrestricted license is issued only for the type of activities at the securities market where there is license for three years as of the moment of taking of the decision by the licensing body to issue the unrestricted license.

The Order lists the types of activities permitted for combining at the securities market.

The Order is entered into force 10 days after the date of its official publication. The provision requiring the licence holder to have at least one controller as his main job is entered into force 3 months after the date of entry into force of the Order.

Registered in the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on April 20, 2005. Reg. No. 6533.

Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. 45n of March 23, 2005 on the Endorsement of the Regulation of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation

The Regulation shall specify the rules of organisation of work of the Ministry of Finance of Russia in implementation of its functions and authority, including the general rules of organisation of interaction of the Ministry of Finance of Russia with the federal bodies of executive power supervised by it.

Registered in the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on April 19, 2005. Reg. No. 6518.

Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. 03-04-08/104 of April 20, 2005 on the Submission to the Tax Bodies of the Tax Declarations for the Value Added Tax for March and the I Quarter of 2005 Using the Forms Endorsed by the Order of the Ministry of Taxation of Russia No. BG-3-03/644 of November 20, 2003 on the Endorsement of the Forms of Declarations for the Value Added Tax

The taxpayers may submit to the tax bodies tax declarations for the mentioned tax period using both the forms endorsed by the Order of the Ministry of Taxation of Russia No. BG-3-03/644 of November 20, 2003 on the endorsement of the forms of declarations for the value added tax and the forms endorsed by the Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia No. 31n of March 3, 2005 on the endorsement of the forms of tax declarations for the value added tax and indirect taxes (value added tax and excises) for the cases of import of commodities to the territory of the Russian Federation from the territory of the Republic of Belarus and their filling procedures.