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MOSCOW, October 31 The State Duma rejected in the first reading a bill on expanding the functions and powers of the Bank of Russia, including in the field of currency regulation, introduced by a group of deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation .
The document supplements the basic law on the Central Bank with a definition of the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Russian Federation, the gold reserves of the Russian Federation and general provisions on the procedure for the formation and use of gold and currency reserves. At the same time, it is stipulated that the Central Bank must implement not only the monetary policy of Russia, but also develop the strategic framework of the monetary policy of the Russian Federation. The developers “seem the correct policy of placing part of financial reserves in monetary gold.”
The bill also assigns to the Bank of Russia the responsibility to create conditions for the reorientation of credit institutions to investment lending activities and establishes additional requirements for candidates for positions Chairman of the Central Bank and members of the board of directors of the regulator. This provides for the development and approval of regulations on assessing the effectiveness of the activities of members of the board of directors.
The adoption of the bill was opposed by the government, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, the Bank of Russia and the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market. The Cabinet of Ministers, in particular, draws attention to the fact that the provisions of the draft establishing responsibility for the reorientation of credit institutions to investment and credit activities in strategically important sectors of the Russian economy “violate the right to freedom of economic activity guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation.”
And according to the Central Bank, for the legislative definition of gold and foreign exchange reserves and the gold reserves of the Russian Federation, monetary gold, “an integrated approach to establishing the proposed terminology is required in order to avoid contradictions in various legislative and by-laws.” In addition, the provisions of the bill extend their effect not only to the assets of the Bank of Russia in foreign currencies and gold, but also to the assets of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, and go beyond the scope of the law on the Central Bank, notes the Central Bank.
The Accounts Chamber draws attention to the fact that certain provisions of the bill “appear unnecessary and also do not correspond to the goals of implementing monetary policy,” and the Financial Market Committee draws attention to the presence of contradictions with the Budget Code and the laws “On State Secrets”, “On information, information technology and information protection.»