15 September 2000
DAILY REVIEW FROM TATARSTAN
Tatarstan's Parliament Considers Bill On Buying And Selling Of Farmland
Tatarstan's State Council considered a draft law on the sale and purchase of agricultural land at a 14 September session, Tatar Television reported. Deputies decided they will fine tune to the draft and will then vote on the legislation at the next session. State Council Chairman Farid Mukhametshin reportedly said that "without the law on land sale and purchase, not one paragraph concerning private property would be enacted." He said "I insist on the adoption of this law, and we'll monitor the reaction of the federal bodies. If they are brave enough to abolish it, this will show insincerity in their intention to carry out land reform. The law contradicts federal legislation but we'll adopt it." About a half of the session agenda was devoted to the numerous protests by Tatarstan's prosecutor-general concerning republican legislation that contradicts federal laws. The issue over the existence of double legislation -- federal and local -- was also reportedly discussed at the session.
Speaker Comments On Tatarstan's Budget
Tatarstan's State Council chairman, Farid Mukhametshin, told journalists on 14 September that work on the republican draft budget hasn't been finished, and added that the process is extremely complex due to Moscow's new approach to the division of income from the regions. Mukhametshin also commented on a meeting of the heads of "donor" regions held in Moscow on 13 September. He said that participants were critical of the Russian draft 2001 budget according to which the lion's share of taxes collected in the regions are supposed to go to Moscow. Mukhametshin reported that under the current Russian draft budget, almost 70 percent of taxes should go to the federal budget, so that most of the regions that were net donors to the federal budget become "recipients." Mukhametshin said if the Rusian draft budget is adopted in its current condition, Tatarstan's budget will sharply decrease and living standards will go down.
KamAZ Cooperating With Oil Companies
KamAZ is able to satisfy all orders from the Russian oil industry, the general manager of KamAZ's trade-financial company, Anatolii Samarenkin, told reporters on 14 September. Samarenkin commented on the recent decision by Tatarstan's leading oil company, Tatneft, to use only KamAZ-produced cars. KamAZ started designing special machines on order of Tatarstan's oil enterprises in 1999, and that year produced eight autos that were modified and equipped with special devices. This year, 21 more autos were purchased by Tatneft. Samarenkin reported that KamAZ has had similar cooperation with the Russian oil exporting company Transneft for several years, and started with Bashkortostan's oil company Bashneft this year. He said that over 8 percent of the concern's total production is delivered to Russian oil and gas companies.
By Gulnara Khasanova