Monitoring of the Federal Legislation dated 10.08.2006

Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation No. 187-O of May 11, 2006 on the Complaint of the Citizen Vyacheslav Viktorovich Naumchik Concerning the Violation of His Constitutional Rights by the Provisions of Items 2 and 3 of Article 3 of the Federal Law on the Provision of State Pensions in the Russian Federation

The applicant, a military retiree, has appealed against the norm of law whereby the citizens who are simultaneously entitled to different pensions may be provided with one pension of their choice, and whereby the circle of the persons who may simultaneously receive two pensions is defined. According to the applicant, the norm he argues against does not allow military retirees to receive both a long-service pension and the old-age pension they have earned according to the insurance length of service required for getting it. The Constitutional Court has noted that the existing impossibility for the military retirees working under a labour contract to receive -- without waiver of their right to a military pension -- an insurance coverage with account taken of accumulated insurance contributions eliminates the raison d'etre of the pension insurance system which, given these conditions, becomes nothing more than an institution intended for seizing money. The disputed norms, in as much as they extend compulsory pension insurance to the military retirees working under labour contracts without envisaging an appropriate legal mechanism to guarantee the establishment of the insured portion of labour pension with account taken of the contributions accumulated on their personal accounts in the Pension Fund together with the pension they receive in line of state pension system, become ineffective and inapplicable.The federal legislator is to make a provision of a legal mechanism for protecting military retirees and to make sure it is put into force by January 1, 2007.

Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation No. 167-O of May 12, 2006 on the Complaint of the Citizen Vladimir Sergueyevich Kirillov against the Violation of His Constitutional Rights by Item 1 of Article 15 of the Customs Code of the Russian Federation

The Constitutional Court recognised that the owners of motor vehicles that have not been cleared by the customs may dispose of them without any limitations whatsoever, unless a customs body proves that the owner of the vehicle had to know that he was buying an item that was not properly cleared by the customs. The occasion for such decision was an application of a citizen who disputed the constitutionality of Item 1 of Article 15 of the Customs Code used as ground for dismissing his claim for deeming illegal the actions of the State Road Traffic Safety Inspectorate which has cancelled the registration of a vehicle and seized the vehicle certificate on the ground that an inspection revealed that formalities had not been properly completed for the disputed vehicle. According to the applicant, the disputed norm allows customs bodies and the bodies of the State Road Traffic Safety Inspectorate to limit the rights of the persons not deemed participants in customs legal relationships to use, and dispose of, property items they own by means of refusing to issue a vehicle certificate for a motor vehicle that has not passed customs processing. The court stressed that persons which as of the time of acquisition of motor vehicles did not know or were not supposed to know about the illegal nature of the vehicles' entry in the territory of Russia cannot be deemed responsible for the customs formalities required for the motor vehicles, including customs payments, since as of the time of their entry in the territory of Russia they did not have any relationships relating to the said vehicles. Accordingly, for such persons the effective customs legislation does not preclude the possibility for exercising the legal capacity of an owner in respect of the motor vehicles they legally acquired. Thus, the disputed legal provision in the system of effective customs legislation does not preclude to recognise the persons which as of the time of acquisition of motor vehicles on the territory of the Russian Federation did not know and were not supposed to know about the vehicles' having not passed customs processing in the established procedure as fully-competent owners of the motor vehicles they acquired.In this case, the norm of the Customs Code per se cannot serve as ground for deeming invalid a contract of purchase/sale and for depriving the buyer of his right of ownership.

Order of the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation No. 83 of July 13, 2006 on Endorsing the Methodology for Calculating Gas Consumption Rates for the Public when No Gas Meters Are Used

The Methodology is approved as being intended for calculating natural gas consumption rates for the public in case when no gas meters are used, and also when gas meters are out of order or after the expiry of an inter-inspection period.The Methodology is to be applied by executive governmental bodies of subjects of the Russian Federation in the assessment of natural gas consumption rates for the public. The rates (volume) of natural gas household consumption are established by the type of use, i.e. cooking; boiling water for household and sanitary-hygienic purposes (including laundering) when there is no centralised hot-water supply: if there is gas-powered water-heater, if there is no such heater; individual (flat) heating of residential premises (residential houses, flats and rooms); heating bath-houses, greenhouses, garages; maintaining animals (horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats and poultry) in persons' auxiliary farms (preparing cattle-feed, heating water for drinking and sanitation).Details are defined of the calculation of consumption rates by the type of use.Gas consumption rates for cooking and water heating are established in cubic metres per person per month. Gas consumption rates for the heating of residential premises are set in cubic metres per square metre of heated area or per cubic metre of heated volume.If on residential premises there exist several types of gas use the natural gas consumption volumes calculated on the basis of relevant rates shall be added up. The rates are calculated on the basis of an even distribution of gas consumed over the months of the year.The natural gas consumption rates for the public are calculated for each region with due regard to its natural, climatic, demographic and socio-economic features.Certain documents used for calculation purposes are provided as exhibits: Annual Heat Consumption Rates for the Public for Cooking and Water-Heating Purposes; Territorial Coefficients for Annual Heat Consumption Rates for Cooking and Water-Heating Purposes; Average Volume Planning Indicators for Residential Buildings (Houses) for Calculating Gas Consumption Rates for Heating Purposes; The Distribution in the Housing Facilities of a Region of Characteristic Groups of Residential Buildings (Houses) with Natural Gas Consumption for Individual (Flat) Heating; Climatic Parameters for Calculating Natural Gas Consumption Rates for Heating Purposes; Algorithm for Calculating a Conditional Heat-Transfer Coefficient with Regard to Heat Losses through Infiltration and Ventilation; List of Raw Data and of the Results of Rate Calculations.Registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, registration No. 8115 of July 27, 2006.