| After concerted efforts by the government and
the pro-Kremlin Duma majority, the much-disputed package of draft
laws on reform of the nation's dilapidated and heavily subsidized
housing and municipal utilities sector has eventually received
the approval of the lower house. On Friday 244 deputies voted
for the draft law, once again pledging unswerving allegiance to
the Kremlin.
On Friday Gennady Goudkov of the People's Deputy Group addressed
the house with a proposal to review the government package of
draft laws narrowly rejected on November 27. Goudkov urged his
colleagues to adopt the document, saying that the shortcomings
of the reform plan could be eliminated before the second reading.
Communist Nikolai Kolomeitsev objected, saying that in line with
house regulations a document once rejected cannot be resubmitted
to the house for voting.
The presidential envoy to the State Duma Alexander Kotenkov objected,
saying that by law the State Duma may independently modify house
rules. The Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Georgy Boos backed
Kotenkov, saying that although a decision meant that the house
would create a precedent, the move would be legal. Consequently,
the draft was included in the agenda.
Having won the first round, the pro-Kremlin centre went on the
offensive. The head of the People's Deputy Group Gennady Raikov
suggested that the house vote on the package without debate, as
the debates had already been held. Nonetheless, some deputies
did not fail to draw attention to themselves by blasting the draft
as ''anti-social''.
Deputy Head of the liberal YABLOKO faction and outspoken critic
of the government's programme Sergei Mitrokhin said that if the
housing reform draft laws were passed, rent and utility payments
would increase threefold in 18 months. In his opinion, the document
lacks requisite mechanisms for conducting structural reform in
the housing sector and creating competitive services in that sphere:
in other words entities providing communal services would retain
their monopoly status and the reforms would end up with an increase
in utility rates, while the quality of services remains poor.
Nonetheless, despite protests from the Communists and YABLOKO,
on Friday the draft law gathered enough votes to clear the first
hurdle. An alternative version drafted by the member of the Duma
committee for labour and social policy Oleg Shein was not even
included in Friday's session. Shein's draft was rejected by the
Duma council last month ''due to technical factors'' and therefore
never made it to the plenary session.
After the voting on Friday, YABLOKO's Mitrokhin called the draft
law eventually approved by the house as ''the most irresponsible
draft that is totally unrelated to reforms''. The deputy asserted:
''The government has pretended that it made amendments [to the
draft law], and the centrists pretended to believe this statement.”
The government's package of draft laws on housing sector reform
envisages the phasing out of subsidies for electricity, water
and gas. The initial variant of the draft law submitted by the
government to the lower house last month was rejected by the Duma's
governing body - the Duma Council - and the government was forced
to review the document hastily.
The main concession made by the cabinet to the State Duma was
the exclusion of a provision obliging low-income households to
pay for communal services in full. The government also agreed
not to abolish all the privileges presently enjoyed by war and
labour veterans, teachers in rural areas and doctors - altogether,
some 26 million Russians on low incomes.
The concessions, however, will only be effective during the transition
period, until 1 January 2005, whereupon they will be replaced
with targeted subsidies that will be granted only to those in
dire need. The government also excluded a provision allowing the
eviction of tenants for failing to pay six months in a row.
See also:
Housing
and Communal Reform
| 