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RF govt presidium to discuss agriculture issues

MOSCOW, September 27 (Itar-Tass) — The Russian government’s presidium on Tuesday will consider a number of changes to the existing federal laws on the development of agriculture and on the entry citizens to and exit from Russia.

Minister of Agriculture Yelena Skrynnik will present to the Cabinet draft amendments to Article 8 of the Federal Law “On the Development of Agriculture.” Currently, the state program of agricultural development and regulation of agricultural products, food and raw materials is approved by the government for a five-year period. At a meeting of the government commission on issue of the agro-industrial complex on March 23, 2011 it was decided to establish the term of effect of a new State Program from 2013 to 2020. The Ministry of Agriculture proposes to establish “a term defined by the government” instead of the five-year term.

Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov will report on proposed changes to the law on the rules of entry to and departure from Russia. It is said in the materials for the meeting that the issue of the procedure of extradition of foreign nationals will be raised. The amendments offered by the draft law will make it possible to formalise the issue of crossing the border by foreigners who do not have the required documents and for which there is a decision of the General Prosecutor’s Office on extradition of a foreign state. This will ensure the full implementation by Russia of international treaties on extradition of the above category of foreign nationals.

In addition, the agenda includes the ratification of the Russian-Latvian agreement on Avoidance of Double Taxation and on the Prevention of Tax Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital. The draft sets lower tax rates on passive income (dividends, interest and royalty) at the place of residence of the company that pays them. This is done to increase the tax base in the Russian Federation, because the main investment flows are directed from the Russian Federation to Latvia and the main recipients of such income are Russian persons. In addition, the draft uses some terms and criteria that are not envisaged by the model agreement.

The ministers are planned to approve amendments to the regulation on the Federal Forestry Agency. It is proposed to entrust the Federal Forestry Agency with the powers to settle issues of the creation and allotment of forest seed breeding facilities, use of forests for cultivation of seedlings of forest plants, classification of forest wildfire hazard depending on the weather conditions, monitoring the fire hazard in forests and forest fires, determining the means of forest fire prevention and extinguishing, etc.

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