MOSCOW. April 10 (Interfax-AVN) - The Yabloko faction of the State Duma lower house of parliament is not satisfied with the bill envisaging an increase in servicemen's salaries and simultaneous abolition of some of their benefits, Yabloko spokesman Alexei Arbatov told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The bill was approved by the house on the third reading on Wednesday, said Arbatov, who is a deputy chairman of the Duma defense committee. According to him, his faction will insist on a separate law specifying the mechanism of servicemen's allowance adjustment.
"Our faction consolidated to vote against the bill on all three readings, because the document does not solve the problem of increasing servicemen's income," Arbatov noted.
Chairman of the defense committee Andrei Nikolayev told the house while introducing the bill that he generally supported the document, but noted that "while working on the bill we failed to solve the most pressing problems related to introduction of a compensation covering 50 percent of the rent and utilities."
A spokesman for a parliamentary faction told Interfax-AVN that "the standing order of the Duma was violated today; it is forbidden to discuss the bill as a whole or its parts on the third reading, but the session effectively turned into a new debate."
The bill passed on Wednesday envisages an increase in servicemen's salaries attached to the position starting from July 1, 2002. Servicemen's salaries attached to the rank will be adjusted to wages of state employees starting from January 1, 2003.
The Duma voted twice on the bill. As many as 224 votes were cast in favor of the bill on the first vote, while 226 were necessary to pass it. When the lawmakers voted the second time, 233 votes were cast in favor and 150 against the bill. There was one abstention.
The bill has been submitted to the Federation Council upper house of parliament.