Feasibility Above Law?

To be adopted by the parliament with minimal losses, a bill should be supported by additional documents including sound feasibility study. Russian parliamentarians seem to be wizards in supporting bills “about everything and nothing”.

The State Duma has lately adopted a federal law titled not very informatively: “On Amendments to Articles 12 and 14 of the Federal Law on Licensing of Specific Kinds of Activities”. Its contents attracts much more attention: the fee for providing information from registers of licenses is increased ten times – from 10 rubles to 100.

An official comments of the Duma members to the bill states that “the proposed information provision fee amount is adequate to factual expenses for information preparation”. Parliamentarians do not clarify what special preparation so suddenly appears to be needed to make an one- or two-page excerpt from a register.

An expert conclusion on the bill explains that the figure of RBL 100 is “more compliant with expenses for excerpt delivery, especially by post”.

Meanwhile, today delivery of a plain letter weighing 40 grams over Russia costs RBL 11.65 rubles; for a registered letter of the same weight, postage costs amount to RBL 25.30. What hundred rubles are needed for, then?

Ivan Pavlov, IIFD Board Chair, points that an ungrounded law supported by a vague feasibility study can lead to worst practical results.