Разговор с В.Путиным.Прямая линия.Прямой эфир.04.12.08.Part 12
Speaking during his annual televised Q&A session with the public,Russian Prime Minster Vladimir Putin
The session lasted for about three hours. The Russian Prime Minister and the leader of the most popular Russian political party, United Russia, covered a variety of issues ranging from the global financial crisis to relations with Europe and the United States to purely domestic topics.
В прямом эфире телеканалов «Россия» и «Вести», радиостанций «Маяк» и «Радио России» Владимир Путин Председатель Правительства и лидер партии «Единая Россия» ответил на вопросы, поступившие в общественные приемные Председателя партии, заданные по телефону, sms, а также через сайт программы.Трансляция идет из Гостиного двора в Москве.
VLADIMIR PUTIN: That's a very good question, and people are, of course, right to ask it. Oil prices on world markets have fallen by half or even two-thirds, while inside the country there has been an insignificant, if any, reduction in them. Why is that?
Mr Belousov, what is happening is this: even when oil prices were high, we took most of oil companies' windfall profits away from them and into the budget - through export and customs duties and taxes, as much as 80% and sometimes even 90%. It was thanks to these revenues that we formed most of the country's gold and hard currency reserves, which today, as I said earlier, are the third largest in the world - $450 billion. They are our "safety cushion" and allow us to make things easier during the crisis for millions of people.
What is happening today? Today we have slightly reduced the tax burden on the oil and gas sector, but it still remains quite high. Oil companies are, of course, suffering losses and now that world prices are down and taxes still high, they are trying to make money at the expense of domestic consumers. True, it is also in a way the state's policy, and it can be discussed with deputies.
What is actually happening? At the expense of people with large or even medium incomes, at the expense of people who can afford to have a car and buy petrol, we are withdrawing revenues into the budget and distribute them among those badly in need: the unemployed, the disabled, the retired, and servicemen. But, of course, there are limits and we should always seek the golden mean.
Oil companies today lose $68 per tonne of exported oil. What is more, when we announced we were reducing the mineral resource extraction tax from December 1, they simply stopped shipments to avoid having to pay extra into the budget. We made them resume the shipments and replenished the budget, while they honoured their promises to consumers. But this means losses for them, of course.
From January 1, 2009, we are planning a further reduction in the resource extraction tax. In this case, many companies will break even or be slightly in the black, if we disregard their current investment spending. But we will discuss this topic separately. And we expect that our next steps to lessen the tax burden will no doubt bring down domestic prices inside Russia.
ERNEST MACKEVICIUS: Thank you, Mr Putin. Now I will again give the floor to Ms Sittel, to be followed by a direct link-up with Khabarovsk. But first Maria Sittel. Please, go ahead.
MARIA SITTEL: Work is in full swing; operators are receiving phone calls real-time and are processing text messages and e-mails from the site. It is too early to give any comparative statistics, see which region is the most active. Most likely, we will be able to do it only after the air.
But what I can say with statistical accuracy: up to this minute the information processing centre has received 1,310,000 calls and 550,000 text messages. Interestingly, despite being shorter, some text messages are not second to phone calls in terms of meaningfulness. Here is a short, terse and emotional text message: "To Putin. From Nadezhda Mukhanova, a pensioner, 68 years old. My pension is 3,500 roubles, fire wood costs 10,000 roubles. How can I survive?"
VLADIMIR PUTIN: Of course metropolitan residents and the majority of people in this country might think such a problem is insignificant. But in fact it is a serious problem for people living in rural areas; I am well aware of it. It is not simply a matter of pensions, although it is obvious that pensions must be raised. Certainly, if more questions of this kind are voiced today, we will touch upon the outlook for the pension system's development. Undoubtedly, pensions must be raised.
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