The Speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, Valentina Matviyenko, believes that contributions to the Mandatory Health Insurance Fund should be collected from unemployed citizens or those receiving shadow income. She suggests focusing on an amount of 45 thousand rubles per year (470 euros).
“Pensioners, our children, the disabled, people with limited health—there are no questions. But when young, healthy, able-bodied people are not working anywhere... This is shadow employment or they simply do not want to work. Then the question is—what sources of income do they live on?” Matviyenko asks.
Matviyenko expressed confidence that “any healthy person can pay 45 thousand a year,” as this is “not a colossal amount.” She urged to work on this proposal without delay.
It should be noted that in Belarus, authorities have been fighting against "idlers" for 10 years. On April 2, 2015, the so-called decree No. 3 on "idlers" ("On the Prevention of Social Dependency") was adopted in the Republic of Belarus.
According to the document, those who worked less than 183 days in a calendar year must pay a fee of 20 basic units (at that time equivalent to about 200 US dollars). Students in full-time education, conscript soldiers, mothers raising children under 7 years old, those living abroad, and some other categories of citizens were exempt from the tax.
In March 2017, Lukashenko suspended the action of decree No. 3. In 2018, it was revised—the “tax” as such was abolished, but a registry of unemployed citizens was introduced, who must pay the full cost of certain state services (for example, utilities and heating without benefits).
