The guest of the program ‘Tribune’ is Vladimir Poletaev, a member of the Federation Council Committee on Rules and Organization of Parliamentary Activity, the senator from the Altai Republic.
- The first question will be about the status of a self-employed citizen. What is the difference between a self-employed citizen and an individual entrepreneur?
- We have a new institute of self-employment. Now our business in Russia is not experiencing the most optimistic mood. The government, senators, deputies, everybody is thinking about how to improve the mechanism of support for small business. One of these measures is a patent for self-employed citizens. The patent system hasn’t been implemented yet. Citizens are not so well grounded in the economic and legal spheres in order to consider and arrive at a patent system. Thus, the idea of introducing such a term as ‘self-employed citizens’ came to our minds to describe those who do not have a right to employ workers and should work only for themselves. This is one of the main differences from an individual entrepreneur.
If a self-employed citizen buys a patent. In this case it contains both taxes, and fees, and even insurance fees. It is a big difference among individual entrepreneurs, but the most important thing is that a person is not an employer and he can work only for himself.
- Does it mean that a person buys a patent, which contains an incorporated tax component, and during the certain period of time that the patent is valid the person can engage in activities specified in the patent?
- It does. Now we are discussing how widely this patent will be implemented because the position of the Ministry of Finance is based on patents for three categories: those who will be engaged in tutoring; those who will be engaged in the cleaning of premises, and those who do repairs. According to preliminary information, there are about 11 million self-employed people. Therefore, we believe that the number of jobs should be extended. If a man buy a patent he should think about how to keep records. He has received self-employed status (patent) and he continues to work to his heart's content.
- How we should stimulate taxpayers to be out of the shadows? Can any person work as tutor without buying a patent and paying any taxes?
- 70% of teachers are involved in tutoring, and I think nobody buys a patent. It is not enough to introduce an institute of self-employed people to get them out of the shadows. It is necessary to make changes both to the labor and the civil laws to have their pension contributions and length of experience continued. In this case, people will be encouraged to use the patent system and be self-employed. The Federal Tax Service plays an important role in the withdrawal from the shadows. It is actively engaged in the administration, introduction of new services that allow to communicate with tax authorities without any direct contacts. There are about forty services now.
If entrepreneurs don’t have a higher economic, or legal education, the most important thing for them is easy ‘communication’. Such electronic services allow to ‘communicate’ without contacts, without frightening people. In this case, people will easily buy the status of an individual entrepreneur themselves.
It is good that now we are introducing such a thing as supervisory vacations for business, when after registration a person is not subject to a system of administrative examinations for a certain period of time by the various agencies and departments of which we have an excessive amount. Financial tools are introduced for small and medium-sized business (subsidies amounting to 17 billion rubles). They also lead to the withdrawal of business from the shadows.
But all these measures should be systemic and they should have a point type. Only then will we be able to encourage business people to work for themselves openly and honestly.
- Vladimir Vladimirovich, the next question is about the Unified State Exam. You are a well-known critic of the exam. Why don't you like it?
- It is not reasonable to cancel the Unified State Exam, but we need to adjust it. What is the meaning of teaching students for 11 years, but then they have to answer questions of different types? The system has led to tutoring. Tutoring and the Unified State Exam have become two sides of the same coin. If tutoring was previously popular in high school, now students start being tutored during elementary school. This has led to the formation of a shadow business, which has reached 40 billion rubles.
According to the results of opinion polls, 70% of pupils and their parents believe that it is necessary to hire a tutor. This process involves teachers and students and parents. 70% of the students consider that tuition is necessary to enter a higher educational institution. It turns out that our educational system performs only 30% of its functions.
We should have a comprehensive approach to this issue. It is important to exclude the corruption component. It is possible to buy a medical certificate in order to delay the exam.
- We had a corruption component earlier, especially when entering universities ...
- So the corruption component has decreased, but there is a positive effect. But corruption has had a latent type. I decided to send my friend, who is a teacher at a leading technical university, this year's mathematics exam. And he said: "I see a solution in every task.’’ However, it doesn’t mean that I will deal with it if I start. He took two and a half hours to solve the seventeenth task. And the tasks were difficult, they could not be solved with the help of school methods. For example, inequalities cannot be solved graphically. It takes a lot of time if you solve them in an algebraical way. It is necessary to understand the range of meaning and narrow solutions in some cases. Some tasks can be solved with the help of selection, especially logarithmic tasks. I failed to solve geometry even approximately. I wouldn’t enter university now."
I would invite the leadership of the Ministry of Education to try to pass the exam themselves.
- Is your recipe to save the exam and at the same time align the school program, as well as the exams alignment, to the necessary requirements?
- And this should be related to the additional entrance tests, which are established by colleges.
- Should we fix another date for the Day of Knowledge in some regions in order to extend the tourist season? Such an initiative was made at the end of this summer at various events.
- The initiative was discussed in the Siberian Federal District, the governors expressed their viewpoints. I do not consider it appropriate to cancel September 1st. Those regions offer to shift the beginning of school years due to the fact that we supposedly come to the ‘velvet’ season. But Crimea and Krasnodar Territory don’t suffer from a reduced number of tourists, just the age of the tourists is different during this season. Young families with 6-7 year-old children and representatives of the older generation travel then, as they cannot bear the heat. We must proceed from the interests of children. It is easier for students to start the school year on September 1st and get involved in the learning cycle when the weather is warm.
- We have such a traditional section ‘From Kamchatka Territory to the Kaliningrad Region’ in the context of our program. It is dedicated to domestic tourism. In the upper house of the parliament you represent the Republic of Altai, so could you tell us what it is ready to offer Russian tourists?
- The Republic of Altai is a unique region. There are a large number of UNESCO natural monuments. Mount Belukha is the highest in the Asian part of Russia, at 4506 meters. The beautiful Lake Teletskoye is in second place after Lake Baikal in terms of the volume of fresh water. There are also the Ukok Plateau and two nature parks in the region. We can imagine a great choice for eco-tourism, nature tourism, agriculture, hunting and spa tourism. We have everything except for the sea. We are also developing winter tourism. A ski resort is being commissioned near Lake Teletskoye. We offer a full range of services. Our people are hospitable and cordial. We must pay tribute to the federal government and the country's top leadership for commissioning Gorno-Altaisk Airport, which allows us to receive long-haul flights and planes. We are ready to receive tourists and offer them the whole range of services. We should exploit the pseudo-sanctions imposed against Russia. Domestic tourism has increased today to 40%. According to statistics, every 8 tourists are served by one of our residents. This tourist season was successful. I personally spent my vacations in the Altai Republic.
- Should tourists arrive in winter, or is it better to travel during spring and summer?
- All seasons are good in our region. The most popular winter activities are snowmobiles, sloping, hunting. You can enjoy ski resorts and clean air. It is considered that the Altai region has good energy. According to legend, Shambhala is located in the Altai region. Mount Belukha is equidistant from all the oceans. So it is considered to be a magical place that attracts everyone. The leadership of the republic and the head of the republic Alexander Vasilyevich Berdnikov realize a lot of things to develop tourism and promote our brand. Our constituent territory is for the tourism and agricultural sectors. We are actively working in this direction.
