On Elections, Census and Tariffs

The Parliamentary Committee on Economic Policy, Budget and Finance finalized the budget for the preparation and conduct of a single day of voting, scheduled for November 29 this year. The final version of the document with a list of estimated costs to be incurred by national and local budgets will be presented to Deputies. Estimate was recommended for approval in the second and final reading.

Closely linked to the November elections is another issue on the agenda of the Committee. We are talking about the census. The government planned to hold it in October of this year. But, according to deputies, the timing is not the best: this is period of pre-election campaign work.

Oleg Vasilaty proposed to shift the time of the census to December. Another argument, which he cited in support of the initiative - was the workload of local government employees. This year they will organize and carry out activities for the 70th anniversary of the Victory, the 25th anniversary of the formation of the republic, the elections and the census. It is necessary to properly distribute the load, according to the deputy.

The government opposed the amendment, citing the adverse climatic conditions in December. But the author's arguments sounded more convincing. The Committee will recommend to the Plenary to adopt the initiative of the group of deputies (S. Cheban, N. Namashco, V. Chervonooky) on Amendments to the Law "On Population Census" in the second reading as amended by Oleg Vasilaty.

As always proved controversial Proposal of Anatoly Dirun to freeze the tariffs for services to the population in the sphere of natural monopolies at the beginning of 2014 (with this initiative, it appears not the first time). The Deputy emphasized that in the current socio-economic environment where state employees and pensioners livelihood is limited; there is a rise in the number of defaulters among population.

The government did not support the idea. Its representatives said that the reduction in revenue funds to the companies providing services to the public, will lead to the fact that they will not be able to qualitatively carry out their functions.

As a result, the responsible committee decided to recommend the adoption of the law-in-draft in the first reading.