Monitoring of the Federal Legislation dated 2.06.2005

Federal Constitutional Law No. 4-FKZ of June 1, 2005 on the Amendment to Article 7 of the Federal Constitutional Law on the Government of the Russian Federation

The amendments introduce restrictions to the procedure of assigning of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation: this position may be occupied by the citizen of the Russian Federation only.

Federal Law No. 54-FZ of June 1, 2005 on the Amendment to Article 31 of the Code of Criminal Procedures of the Russian Federation

The amendments exclude criminal cases envisaged in Part 3 of Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation from the jurisdiction of the regional court and include them in the jurisdiction of the justices of the peace. The mentioned norm introduced criminal responsibility for the use of the documents known to be faked.

Federal Law No. 53-FZ of June 1, 2005 on the State Language of the Russian Federation

The state language of the Russian Federation on the whole of its territory is the Russian language. When using the Russian language as the state language of the Russian Federation, it is not permitted to use the words and expressions failing to comply with the norms of the modern literary Russian language, except for the foreign words that do not have commonly used analogues in the Russian language. The procedure of endorsement of the norms of the modern Russian literary language, rules of spelling and punctuation is defined by the Government of the Russian Federation.

Persons that do not have command of the state language of the Russian Federation shall be entitled for the services of an interpreter to implement and protect their rights and legal interest on the territory of the Russian Federation.

The Federal Law is entered into force from the day of its official publication.

Federal Law No. 52-FZ of May 31, 2005 on the Ratification of the Additional Agreement between the Russian Federation and the Chinese People's Republic on the Russian-Chinese State Border on Its Eastern Part

Ratifies the Additional Agreement singed in Peking on October 14, 2004 defining the line of the Russian-Chinese state border on the two agreed portions of its eastern part from the 7th to 8th borderline points and from the 10th to 11th borderline points.

Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 609 of May 30, 2005 on the Endorsement of the Regulation on the Personal Information of the State Civil Servant of the Russian Federation and the Keeping of His Personal File

Defines the procedure of obtaining, processing, storage, handing over and any other use of the personal information of the state civil servant of the Russian Federation, as well as the keeping of his personal file. The personal information of the civil servant is implied to be information about the facts, events and circumstances of life of the civil servant permitting to identify his personality and contained in the personal file of the civil servant or that must be included in his personal file.

Mass media, if they apply for it, shall get information on the declared annual income of the state servant, list of objects of immovable property possessed by him on the proprietary basis or used by him, as well as the list of transport vehicles and the total declared cost of securities possessed on the proprietary basis.

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

Letter of the Central Bank of Russia No. 78-T of May 30, 2005 on the Revocation of the Operative Direction of the Bank of Russia No. 145-T of April 30, 1999 on the Issues Pertaining to the Regulation of the Bank of Russia No. 72-P of March 26, 1999

Pursuant to the adoption of the Regulation of the Bank of Russia No. 268-P of April 19, 2005 specifying the procedure and criteria of assessment of the financial standing of natural person founders (participants) of the credit organisation, revokes Operative Direction of the Bank of Russia No. 145-T of April 30, 1999.

Letter of the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation No. 2585-MP/70 of May 27, 2005 on the Indices of Change of the Cost Estimates for the II Quarter of 2005

Specifies indices of change of the estimated costs for the whole of construction and installation works and by items of expenses for the II quarter of 2005 by the subjects of the Russian Federation for the objects financed from the federal budget.

The indices for construction and installation works are defined taking into account overhead expenses and profit estimates. The overhead expenses are adopted with a reduction coefficient of 0.94 taking into account the reduced rate of the uniform social tax from January 1, 2005. The mentioned coefficient does not apply to the overhead expenses in the basic level of prices.

When applying the indices for the items of expenses, overhead expenses and the profit estimates are determined from the labour remuneration fund of construction workers and equipment operators in the current level of prices

Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. 03-03-02-02/70 of May 13, 2005 on the Invalidation of the Position of the Federal Tax Service of Russia Pertaining to Application of the Simplified System of Taxation

Taxpayer expenses applying the simplified system of taxation to purchase commodities for their further sale are recognised in the determination of the taxable base for the uniform tax in full amount after they are actually paid for regardless of the time of sale of the commodities. In this case, the value added tax is taken into account in full amount in expenses in the reported period of its payment.

As a substantiation of the writing off of commodities and material values when released for production, the Ministry of Finance of Russia cites Article 254 of the Tax Code, Item 5 of which states that the cost of the residues of commodities and material values handed over for production but unused as of the end of the month is not taken into account in the determination of the taxable base. Earlier, the Ministry of Taxation of Russia in its Letter No. SA-6-22/657 of June 11, 2003 cited Subitem 3 of Item 1 of Article 273 stating that expenses for the purchase of raw materials are taken into account in expenses as soon as they are written off to production.