The initiative to merge the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation (PFR) and the Social Insurance Fund of Russia (FSS) into a single fund was submitted to the State Duma by the Cabinet of Ministers in May, in the first reading the lower house adopted the bill on June 8. Initially, it was envisaged that the Government would act as the founder of the Social Fund of the Russian Federation, and the Supervisory Board, to which the fund would be accountable, would include representatives of the State Duma, the Federation Council, trade unions and employers.

According to the amendments adopted by the State Duma in the second reading, the Supervisory Board in the Social Fund of Russia is liquidated. As Yaroslav Nilov, head of the Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs, explained to TASS earlier, the functions of the supervisory board duplicated the functions of the board. In this regard, the deputies liquidated the supervisory board and increased the representation of the State Duma and the Federation Council in the board.

According to Ekaterina Stenyakina, a member of the Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs, in connection with the liquidation of the Supervisory Board, the Cabinet of Ministers may "create a council to consider strategic issues of pensions and social security."

For the second reading, the deputies also brought the organizational and legal form of the fund and the structure of its divisions into line with the law "On non-profit organizations".

Another amendment, which was taken into account when considering the document, concerns the insurance of foreign workers. As Nilov explained, foreign workers will be able to use the services under compulsory medical insurance if employers pay contributions for them for three years.

The reform is being carried out as part of a project to create a social treasury in Russia. Its basis will be a digital platform that will unite all information systems existing in the social sphere. According to the authors of the initiative, as a result, the state will be able to centrally manage social payments, provide them as quickly, conveniently and targetedly as possible.

As the speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin noted earlier during the plenary session of the chamber, "the creation of a single fund will simplify the receipt of social payments by citizens - they will be assigned automatically or upon one application." At the same time, according to Volodin, the transfer of services to electronic form will not affect their accessibility for the elderly and disabled. After the reorganization of the funds, citizens, as now, will be able to personally contact customer services and the MFC, receive all services on a one-stop basis, he added.

The State Duma also adopted the accompanying bills in the third reading. One of them is amending the tax legislation. The changes provide for the unification of the base for calculating insurance premiums to state off-budget funds. For the main category of payers of insurance premiums, an aggregate tariff of 30% within the base and 15.1% above the base is retained. Preferential categories of payers of insurance premiums are combined into three groups, for which preferential rates of contributions will be 15%, 7.6% and 0%. In addition, for payers who do not make payments and other remuneration to individuals, the bill provides for the payment of insurance premiums for compulsory pension insurance, compulsory medical insurance in a total fixed amount of 45,842 rubles. for the billing period of 2023 if the amount of the payer's income for the billing period does not exceed 300,000 rubles.

At the same time, it provides for the calculation and payment of insurance premiums for compulsory pension insurance, compulsory social insurance in case of temporary disability and in connection with motherhood, and compulsory medical insurance in a single amount, which will be distributed by the Federal Treasury between the budgets of state non-budgetary funds.

The second accompanying bill introduces amendments to the Budget Code of the Russian Federation. They are aimed, among other things, at the distribution of insurance premiums paid by all payers of insurance premiums, including preferential categories. 72.8% of contributions will be credited to the Pension and Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation for mandatory pension insurance, 8.9% for mandatory social insurance in case of temporary disability and in connection with motherhood, and 18.3% for the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund.

As stated in the explanatory note to the bill, the creation of a single fund "is proposed to be implemented from January 1, 2023."

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