The President of Tatarstan attended the meeting of the council to the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Federation President in the Povolzhsky federal district held in Saratov.

On June 30, President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev attended the meeting of the council to the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Federation President in the Povolzhsky federal district held in Saratov. The meeting, presided by the plenipotentiary representative Mr.Grigory Rapota, was dedicated to the issues of continuing municipal reform, as well as some aspects in the agro-industry.

Current meeting of the council had extended participation. On top of the heads of the subjects of the Privolzhsky federal district, the meeting was attended by the deputy heads of the Russian State Duma and Federal Council Mr.Vyacheslav Volodin and Mr.Aleksandr Torshin, heads of various committees of the State Duma, heads of select ministries and departments of the Russian government, representatives of the Administration of the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President in the Privolzhsky federal district, chief federal inspectors for the subjects of the federal district and other officials.

Grigory Rapota stated that the reform of the local self-government faces special challenges in Privolzhsky federal district. The number of municipalities is the largest here – almost 7000, total for Russia being 24 thousand. Tatarstan has 988 municipalities – in this regard the republic is one of the leaders.

Main presentation of the meeting was done by Mr.Nikolai Merkushin, the President of the Republic of Mordovia. In his regard the main issues for the municipalities are strengthening their financial independence and ensuring availability of qualified personnel. The discussion that followed drew in heads of some regions of the Privolzhsky federal district. It turned out that the issue of municipal budgets is the weakest everywhere. Majority of the participating heads of regions stated that municipal finances are not nearly up to the level of responsibilities they are to bear.

Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiev stated that redirecting most of the revenue stream generated through unified tax towards the federal center, as well as efforts to limit taxable basis of municipalities and regions are unacceptable. The head of Tatarstan drew attention to the fact that adoption of the Law 131 was not followed by introducing important changes into the Russian Budget Code, necessary for successful implementation of the municipal reform.

Mintimer Shaimiev called the authors of the local self-governance reform to stop looking for “easy” ways of implementing own projects.

Participants of the meeting also considered challenges related to organizing regional grain unions and increasing the use of commodity exchanges for operations with food-stock. Such developments are linked to tightening international situation with food-stock and growing prices.

“Country’s food supply security issues cannot be resolved without helping cattle breeding, - stated Mintimer Shaimiev. – If the state paid the market price for milk it buys from its villagers, we wouldn’t have faced uncontrolled exports and unfair competition from foreign producers. We hope the results will be high this year, but will we allow them to benefit people who work on land? Our country has lots of priority national projects, but so far the state helps producers with one hand, choking them with the other”.

Mintimer Shaimiev also proposed increasing the size of the Federal Investments fund part for helping agro-producers. Grigory Rapota said federal authorities will consider the proposal and informed that some work is already being done in this direction.

RT President M.Shaimiev stated that after forum discussions were beneficial. Talking to the journalists the underlined that the meeting concluded with important proposals for all levels of government. “The important thing is that our voice was heard”, - said the President of Tatarstan.

He also shared his view on the state of municipal reform in the Republic. “Recently formed Tatarstan local self-government authorities had already turned into important centers for decision-making on issues of importance for regular citizens – responsible use of land, quality of communal housing and transportation services, state of roads, city and rural development”, - he stated.

The republic entered new stage of its growth as the result of the reform, continued RT President. Its implementation opened up the way to true empowerment of population, thus directly affecting their social-economic situation. Newly established municipalities depend heavily of subsidies from higher budgets. Their own sources of income are income, real estate and property taxes, whilst the largest sources are still subsidies and transfers from and the republic’s budgets. Stability of municipalities depends heavily on the quality of life, thus income of its population. So next priority is creating conditions for increasing the real level of salaries.

Unlike many other regions, Tatarstan managed to reform its economy and social sector and introduced financial basis for dividing authority between state and municipal government. This leaves no doubts that the municipal reform will be successful in the Republic, finished the President.