Congress of Unified Russia

On April 25, President of Tatarstan Minitmer Shaimiev took part in the first All-Russian congress of members of the Unified Russia - deputies of legislative bodies and representative bodies of local self-government. The congress agenda included one question: "On problems of members of the Unified Russia - deputies of all levels on realization of the party program and strategy, following the message of Russian President V.V.Putin to the Federal Assembly for 2002".

The congress focused on issues of party control over the duly wages payment to the workers of budgetary sphere and pensioners, assistance in realization of a housing-and-municipal reform, development of local self-government, creation of favorable legal conditions for small and medium business.

Mintimer Shaimiev delivered a speech on regional aspects of a social policy of the party. He spoke about the misbalance of responsibilities of the center and regions. In his opinion, the federal center should also help increase the profit of enterprises and tax base of regions. Today the parity is broken: the center takes away all easily-to-collect taxes - VAT, excises, and customs, leaving the rest to regions. At the same time the center practically has no responsibility for what happens in regions.

The President of Tatarstan emphasized another moment. In Tatarstan alone 804,000 people have the right to free public transportation, these are not only veterans, pensioners, but also military men, employees of the Internal Ministry etc. Every year the republic spends 1,3 mln rubles on it, whereas the majority of given privileges is fixed by the federal legislation. M.Shaimiev thinks that the privileges should be paid by those who establishes them.

With regard to medium and small business, M.Shaimiev noted that today in the country more than 2,000 activities are subject to licensing. "Was it established by local authorities? Who passed these laws? Let's reconsider them and then it will become a social policy of our party," said the President of Tatarstan.

M.Shaimiev concluded by marking the need for clear differentiation of powers between the authorities of all levels. It will allow solving many economic and social problems in a civilized way.