2023-07-03 13:45:00
On May 30, the head of state signed Decree No. 155 “On horticultural partnerships”, hundreds of thousands of summer residents across the country were looking forward to it. According to many, thanks to the legislative act, which will come into force in six months, several urgent problems will be solved. This is also the opinion of the deputy of the House of Representatives from the Brest-Western constituency No. 1 L.G. Breach, whom we asked to comment on the main provisions of an important document.
Leonid Grigoryevich, it is known that the urgent problems of horticultural partnerships (ST) entered the agenda after April 21, 2017, during the discussion of the Message of the Head of State to the Belarusian people and parliament, you turned to A.G. Lukashenka with a question on this topic. As a result, the President gave relevant instructions to the heads of his Administration and the Council of Ministers, and for six years high republican authorities were engaged in “hundreds for citizens”. What can you say about their recommendations, which took the form of a law on May 30?
– First of all, I would like to note that the issues of Decree No. 155 went far beyond the scope of the question I asked, because in the course of studying the situation in the ST, other topical issues related to creating conditions for infrastructure development, resolving land use problems, and individual documentary and organizational conflicts were also exposed. I won’t say that all of them are allowed – in some cases this requires huge financial and material resources, which are currently not available, but it is very important that the Decree provides prerequisites for their implementation in the future.
As for the benefits of today for summer residents, one of the first places I would put is the Regulation approved by the Decree on the procedure for the gratuitous transfer to the balance of state energy supply organizations of electrical networks and transformer substations owned by ST according to their actual condition (naturally – technically sound), regardless of term of commissioning, with the subsequent conclusion of “direct” contracts for electricity supply with citizens – members of partnerships, as is done in settlements. A prerequisite for this will be the requirement for ST to install remote switchgears with a voltage of 0.4 kilovolts, equipped with means for calculating electricity metering.
At present, power engineers, under various pretexts, refuse to take responsibility for the energy management of horticultural associations. And, by and large, you can understand them. Power transmission lines and transformer substations ST, which have not known proper care for many years, will become an additional headache for power grid enterprises. In other words, the state here is clearly lending a shoulder to summer residents, taking this mass of problems and expenses on itself. And for summer residents, this is certainly beneficial. And that’s why. Firstly, the admission of horticultural associations into state ownership of the energy sector will ensure their reliable and safe operation, because the equipment will be serviced by qualified specialists of Belenergo State Production Association, secondly, this guarantees the prompt elimination of possible accidents, and thirdly, it will help to avoid overpayments associated with technological losses in networks and unaccounted for (and this still happens!) Energy consumption.
The life of summer residents will also be facilitated by the establishment of order in a number of other important areas provided for by the Decree. For example, the opinion of people on the need to increase the role of the state in the field of control over the activities of ST was taken into account. Now local executive and administrative bodies have received the right to appoint the chairman of the board of the partnership if he cannot be elected for a long time, and they are also vested with separate powers for the current management of horticultural partnerships.
STs themselves are given the opportunity to receive information from the local executive and administrative body (free of charge) on the seizure and provision of land plots and on the state registration of the transfer of rights to land plots or shares in the right to them. This will ensure the maintenance of up-to-date records of members of partnerships, control over their implementation of the charter of the partnership, the exercise of rights and obligations, compliance with the rules for maintaining the territory, paying contributions, etc.
I note that more stringent – up to the withdrawal in accordance with the legislation on the protection and use of land – will be the requirements for members of the partnership who have not registered their land plots located within the borders of the ST. Issues related to the receipt of ownerless garden houses in communal ownership are settled and the features of their alienation (shares in the right to them), recognized as ownerless or escheated inheritance, are reflected; issues of membership in the partnership of persons who are participants in shared ownership, life-long inheritable possession or lease of a land plot; introduced the possibility of attracting auditors to carry out internal control in the partnership, changed the approaches to the participation of the treasurer in the management bodies of the ST; some other important activities of gardening associations have been updated.
Until now, discussions about membership fees have not subsided in the ST. They unfolded after Decree of the President of the Republic dated July 13, 2015 No. 323 established that the amount of such a contribution does not depend on either the area of the land plot or the number of plots themselves. Does the new Decree change this rule, which is unequivocally interpreted by many summer residents as unfair?
Yes, this rule has been changed. Article 55 of the new Regulations on the horticultural partnership, which was approved by Decree No. 155, states that membership fees are paid by the members of the partnership in an equal amount, regardless of the size or number of land plots, the land users of which they are in the partnership, unless otherwise established by the general meeting, which has the right decide on the formation of the size of membership fees depending on the size or number of land plots owned by members of the partnership. The same article says that the size of targeted and additional contributions can be formed (calculated), including depending on the size or number of land plots owned by members of the partnership. In a word, in all cases, the right to make decisions on these, as they have recently begun to say, “sensitive” issues belongs to the general meeting of the ST.
I think that the vast majority of summer residents will welcome the return to life of the rule that was in effect before the adoption of Decree No. 323. And yet, individual topical issues have not been resolved by the current Decree. This, in particular, concerns the timing of the development of land plots. Some members of the TC are in no hurry to develop their land, which hinders the development of the common territory of the partnership and its improvement. Unfortunately, Decree No. 155 also bypasses the problem of permanent registration with the ST, which would make it possible to pay for natural gas not at cost, but at subsidized prices. And for some reason, the Decree comes into force only after six months. How can all this be explained?
– The fact is that it is difficult to fit all the issues that concern us into one document. In addition, some of the problems that are relevant for ST have been fully or partially resolved by other legal acts even before the issuance of the Decree. For example, the terms of development of land plots are regulated by the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Land. According to the Decree of the Council of Ministers of June 29, 2018 No. 510, for certain categories of beneficiaries living in dachas and non-working pensioners, payment for natural gas at subsidized prices is established. It is not yet possible to extend this rule to all summer residents due to economic reasons. Why Decree No. 155 comes into force only six months later, and not immediately after publication, is explained by the fact that the government of the republic needs time to make the appropriate changes caused by the adoption of the Decree to the current regulatory legal acts. In conclusion, I would like to say that a really important document has been signed. Now the point is to ensure that it is implemented for the benefit of hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens who see it as a serious tool for improving the quality of their lives.
Thank you very much, Leonid Grigoryevich, for a frank conversation!
Interviewed by Peter TISHUK
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