MEP hopes northern contributions in Karelia will remain in force
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ruled to exclude some territories of Karelia from the Far North and similar areas. Emilia Slabunova, a representative of the legislature of Karelia from Yabloko, told us that the consequences of this step are not yet clear, but in the worst case the local population will lose up to 80% of their income.
Photo: vk.com/id15847921 .
In 1993, Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin, signed a decree that credited the Belomorsky, Kalevalsky, Kemsky and Loukhsky regions of Karelia to the Far North. In addition, areas equal to the regions of the Far North are the territories of the districts of Kondopoga, Lakhdenpohsky, Medvezhyegorsky, Muezersky, Olonetsky, Pitkyarantsky, Prionezhsky, Pryazhinsky, Pudozhsky, Segezhsky, Suoyarvsky; Kostomuksha, Petrozavodsk and Sortavala.
Civil servants of the Far North regions in Russia are entitled to so-called northern contributions – from 30 to 100%.
“First of all, it should be noted that we do not yet know for sure what the consequences of Putin's decree will be. Some of my colleagues believe that nothing terrible will happen at all, because our allowances are enshrined in other documents, including the Arctic Development Strategy. But the problem is that the Strategy is not a law, “said Slabunová MK.
The MP wants to believe that we are dealing with a simple failure of bureaucratic decisions, otherwise the republic will have difficult times. “Depending on the region of Karelia in which a person lives, he loses 65 to 80% of his income, which is made up of northern allowances. The republic fundamentally fails in collecting taxes. At the same time, the salaries of our teachers and doctors were already low. Many of them prefer to find work in St. Petersburg, where it is higher than in our country without any extra charges. The outflow of people is so great that less than 600,000 people will live in Karelia in a year, ”says Slabunová.
A representative of the Legislature of Karelia believes that the decision of the Federal Center will be absurd in this case. However, Slabunová believes that the officials could not understand this, so she waits for 14:00, when she should receive an explanation.
At the same time, the former chairman of the Jabloko party emphasized that the allowances had not yet been paid from the federal but from the republican budget. Slabunová believes that it would be right not to abolish them, but to move them from regional to federal authorities. Because they do not, local businesses are forced to pay increased taxes, which affects the competitiveness of Karelian goods and services.
Meanwhile, State Duma deputy Valentina Pivnenko claims that the northern surcharges will not be lifted – this is most likely to be explained in a detailed government decree following the presidential decree. At the same time, Pivněnko called the decree “unexpected”.
Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, promised reporters that he would clarify the story of Karelia's northern allowances and indicated that the changes were just a “technical moment”.