MOSCOW. Dec 29 (Interfax-AVN) - The existing serviceman money allowance system is imperfect, given the transition to the all-volunteer force in the Russian Armed Forces, Colonel Vycheslav Zvezdilin, deputy chief of the Military Social Work Directorate of the Armed Forces Personnel Support Directorate, said in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, published on Wednesday.
"It is primarily based on increasing one-time payments and does not envision a gradual increase in allowances, depending on the rank and the post, which influence military pensions," he said.
Zvezdilin noted that Federal Law No. 122-FZ dated August 22, 2004, envisions a number of measures, aimed at replacing servicemen's fringe benefits with monetary compensations, in order to offset such fringe benefits as free public transport passage, land tax, and property taxes.
Under the law, the monthly increase for military service tensions and complexity has been raised from 70 to 120% of the salary.
According to Zvezdilin, the increase will allow the monthly monetary allowance of volunteer soldiers, sergeants and warrant officers to be increased by 480-650 Russia rubles ($15-20), junior officers by 770-870 Russia rubles ($27-30), and senior officers by 965-1,200 Russian rubles ($33-45). Conscripts are supposed to receive 100 Russian rubles ($3.5) to cover public transport costs on a monthly basis, while military college cadets are to be paid 200 Russian rubles ($6.5) until they sign their first contracts.
A total of 120% of the increase may not be enough for regions with high living standards, such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Moscow region, and the Leningrad region, as well as some others. In this light, Article 100 of the aforementioned federal law sets forth a standard, saying that the Russian government is entitled to adopt decisions on increasing monthly payments of certain servicemen over 120% depending on their residence or military service deployment.
Zvezdilin noted that servicemen, as well as military pensioners, had become the first to have their fringe benefits replaces with monetary compensations since 2002. "However, the latest indexing of serviceman money allowance was carried out in October 2003, when the Russian president adopted the decision on increasing it 1.11-fold. Correspondingly, military pensions have not been increased since then. Replacing fringe benefits with money is unlikely to improve the state of military pensioners," he pointed out.