Moscow, June 9, 2004. At its plenary meeting on Wednesday
the State Duma rejected a draft law to grant families with low incomes
an additional child allowance amounting to 450 roubles (Ed. About USD 15.5)
by the beginning of the next school year. According to the Rosbalt correspondent,
the document was supported by 126 deputies against a required minimum of
226 votes.
The authors of the draft law Tamara Pletnyova (the CPRF) and independent
deputy Sergei Popov proposed
providing the allowance to parents (those who adopt children, trustees
and guardians) of a child under 18, provided the average per capita income
in this family does not exceed the subsistence minimum. Implementation
of this proposal would have necessitated the allocation of additional
subsidies from the federal budget amounting to 4 bln 149 mln roubles.
The Government recommended that deputies to turn down this law, as it
was “financially unsound”.
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