Government meeting

Agenda: Increasing the limit of insurance payouts under savings certificates; enhancing the state regulation of the housing and utilities sector; compensation of rental expenses for residents of the Kursk Region.

Mikhail Mishustin's opening remarks:

Good afternoon, colleagues.

The President noted that people should have an opportunity to safely invest their savings and at the same time receive additional income.

Therefore, the Government has developed and implemented a range of financial tools. They include not only individual investment accounts that allow saving significant amounts thanks to annual tax rebates, but also a long-term savings programme that helps multiply funds.

Today, we will consider legislative amendments that double the limit of insurance payouts under savings certificates confirming that an individual or a private entrepreneur made a bank deposit for a term over three years. Compensation under such savings certificates will equal 2.8 million roubles.

We hope that the proposed tool will interest those who are willing to invest and make profit in Russia.

The next issue concerns enhancing state regulation of the housing and utilities sector that is an essential part of people's lives.

The President is focused on creating a modern comfortable, safe and convenient environment across all regions and municipalities.

A bill has been developed that can expedite the upgrade of housing and utilities systems and improve the quality of wastewater disposal, heat- and water- supply services by private companies. It will be obligatory for these organisations to develop investment programmes that will include measures for the modernisation of the utilities infrastructure. Hopefully, this will improve compliance standards and ensure the overall transparency of this sector, also tightening control over the implementation of such projects.

Plans are in place to fine-tune the mechanism of long-term regulatory agreements. These agreements, signed between regional or local authorities and utility companies, will stipulate the prices of their services as well as their obligations to upgrade their networks.

Another proposal is to adopt a regulation restricting the use of the funds earmarked for repair and replacement of equipment in consumer bills to this purpose only, including for repayment of any debt borrowed externally for this purpose.

It is important that all objectives are attained in full, and the upgraded utility facilities meet the reliability and energy efficiency targets we set today. To this effect, uniform rules will be introduced for evaluating the results.

We believe that these legislative changes will contribute to improving the quality of public services provided to our citizens.

I would like to make one more point - about the border regions.

At a meeting with the heads of municipalities, the President emphasised that we must do everything to support the residents of these regions.

The government continues to provide all-out assistance to them. This is not only about supporting businesses, which are struggling to keep their teams on board in such conditions. Undeniably, help must be provided to the residents who were forced to leave their homes. The cost of renting accommodation along with other additional expenses is a serious burden on their family budgets.

To compensate for these costs, we will allocate an additional 1.3 billion roubles to the Kursk Region.

I ask the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Construction to deliver the funds to the region as soon as possible, so that everyone who is entitled to financial support receives it in full. People are counting on our assistance; it must be provided without delay.