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Disbanding of the Pension Fund, renunciation of the retirement age increase and the ban on imposition of new taxes – those were the demands issued to the new Prime Minister by A Just Russia party.
Members of the mainstream oppositionist have compiled a list of demands for Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. According to A Just Russia, the list of necessary measures was approved the day before by the office of the central council of this party. The document was signed by A Just Russia leader Sergey Mironov. TASS and REGNUM got familiarized with the party demands. The key points concern the pension plan and taxation. The most pressing demand on the part of A Just Russia is to disband the Pension Fund of Russia. The party also calls for dropping the practice of freezing the working Russians’ contributions to the accumulated part of the pension that was introduced at the peak of the economic crisis, as well as for revoking the increase of retirement age. A Just Russia advocates a return to the previous retirement age qualification, which was 55 years for women and 60 years for men. In addition, A Just Russia believes that the pay-as-you-go financing system of the national pension scheme should remain in force. This means that the amount of payments for a particular individual will be based solely on his or her employee tenure and earnings during his or her working life. To ensure that retiring Russians do not face a deficit of years of service, it is necessary to add new occupations. According to the party, the employment record should include the time spent on a parental leave up to the age of three, as well as the period taken up by university studies. In addition, A Just Russia initiates indexation of pensions for 2015-2020, which was implemented just partially. The re-calculation should embrace the payments received by both non-working Russians and those who continue to work after retirement. Mironov's associates also called on Mishustin to declare a five-year moratorium on new fiscal payments -- in particular, taxes, fees and other mandatory penalties. The moratorium should also include non-tax payments. At the same time, the government should take measures to limit the growing costs of services provided by natural monopolies, including a moratorium on rates’ increases in the next five years. For the same period, adoption of new requirements for commercial organizations and individual entrepreneurs should be prohibited. At the same time, the commodity bundle should be broadened. Norms of minimum consumption of material benefits should be established at the level of decent living. Income tax should be collected from people according to an extended progressive scale: the more people earn, the more they pay to the budget. Also, in terms of professions and specialties of strategic importance for the state, it is necessary to introduce a unified wage tariff system in all the constituent territories of the Russian Federation. The document says that Russian women raising minor children should be entitled to benefits in the form of reduced working hours. Young families should get additional opportunities for spending maternity capital – a one-time special bonus paid to mothers for childbirth by way of state support. According to A Just Russia party, among the payments to be increased are healthcare professionals’ salaries, unemployment benefits and student scholarships. All the proposals of the party are grouped in six blocks. In addition to the measures aimed at poverty reduction, raising the birth rates, and improving the pension scheme, the document specified the measures aimed at developing the healthcare system and raising the cultural level of Russians. A Just Russia believes that these steps will improve the quality of life in Russia – which stands in line with the strategic objectives of the government -- as well as will help build a social welfare state. The statement says that for effective work, the government should in the first place establish cooperation with parliamentary political forces. However, according to TASS, the party has previously brought forward similar initiatives to the State Duma and Dmitry Medvedev's government but they were rejected. In addition, Mishustin has already rejected the proposal by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, who had called for the cancellation of debts of Russians to microfinance organizations and debt collection agencies in the amount of 40 bln rubles, as well as for banning the micro lenders and debt collectors. Mishustin said he is hostile to mass debts’ cancellations, as this would lead to financial losses and bankruptcies of organizations that did not commit any violations.