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Putin urges bill to boost pay in army
MOSCOW, March 18 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed his government Monday urging passage no later than May 1 of a new law to boost military salaries by at least 1.5 times current levels, the state-controlled ORT television network reported.
Putin recommended that Russia's bicameral parliament adopt the bill passed Friday in the second reading.
After passing both chambers of the parliament, the bill will be enacted by a presidential decree.
The bill -- dubbed by the Russian media as the "benefits cancellation bill" -- seeks to scrap numerous social benefits enjoyed by the military staff and raise instead meager salaries in a sweeping army reform.
According to Putin, the new bill should result in a "significant increase of the military personnel's income despite cancellation of a number of ineffective benefits."
The president criticized the existing system of payment saying it was "inherited from the Soviet system and has been continuously failing over the last decade."
"The state told the military staff: 'Yes, you are low paid, but you have the benefits. As a rule, the benefits rarely reached the officers' pockets and when they did, it was a paltry amount," said Putin.
The president blamed the authorities of failing to allocate appropriate funds, as well as of spending them on other needs.
Until now, Russia's military staff was entitled -- among others -- to benefits allowing them to pay only half the cost of housing and utilities, as well as to get substantial income tax deductions.
Not all benefits will be kicked out, though -- pensioned officers, the families of servicemen who died or were killed in combat will retain some of the existing benefits.
If passed in accordance with Putin's recommendation, the new law would raise the staff's salaries as early as July 1, 2002, by 1.5 times current levels.
Another increase is scheduled for Jan. 1, 2003 when the salaries would go up twofold.
Accordingly, the salary of the first deputy defense minister in the rank of an army general will be raised in July from current 9,306 rubles ($300) to 13,198 rubles ($426), Moscow's Gazeta daily reported in a survey Monday.
Respectively, a lieutenant serving as a platoon commander and currently earning 2,369 rubles ($76) will get a raise amounting to 4,288 rubles ($138), the paper said.
In his Monday address, Putin stressed the necessity to especially boost the salaries of junior- and medium-rank officers.
The officers' earnings will be indexed with the civil servants' salaries, said the president.
The draft of the new law also foresees a 70 percent salary bonus (instead of the current 50 percent) to the personnel serving under "specially difficult and tense" circumstances.
The length of an officer's service in the military will also play an important role in terms of finances as a current 40 percent bonus scale will be increased to 70 percent.
Putin's address urged Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's immediate reaction as he ordered the Finance Ministry to seek funds in Russia's budget to accommodate the predicted raise.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Lyubov Kudelina told RIA Novosti news agency that the planned increase would be only the "first step on the government's way to boost the military personnel's incomes further."
Kudelina also denied media reports that said retired officers would have their pensions decreased as a result of upcoming legal changes.
"The procedure of calculation of military pensions remains the same and won't be changed," said Kudelina, announcing that the Defense Ministry would publish in the media in coming weeks detailed information explaining the novelties in the accounting system.
The Russian government's effort to raise the salaries of its military staff is one in a number of steps that should help Russia boost the image of the army and reach the goal set by Putin to create a "more modern, well trained and equipped, mobile military."
The military reform also foresees staff cutbacks by 2005 that would reduce the current number of troops by 350,000.
A long-term program to discontinue recruiting conscripts and staff the military with professional soldiers and officers serving under contracts is part of the reform, too.
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