In order to fundamentally solve the problem of reproduction of Russia’s mineral raw material base, it is necessary to improve its organizational security and investment security issues.
We must be clearly aware that the main trend in the current world is the decline in the efficiency of the reproduction process of mineral raw material bases, and a similar trend has emerged in the contribution of various countries to the investment value of geological exploration work. The so-called investment value contribution refers to the ratio of the benefits obtained from new reserves to the investment in geological exploration work. It reflects the value relationship of labor in the mining and raw material processing production chain. Usually the labor of a mining worker can guarantee the follow-up links for 15 to 20 years. individual employment.
Another obvious trend is that the funds invested by governments in geological exploration are increasing year by year. The annual growth rate of funds invested in geological exploration in Russia is 1.5% to 2.0% higher than the growth rate of mining profits. The growth of total funds invested in geological exploration in France, Canada and the United States was 4.5% to 6.5% higher than the total value of mining in the early 1970s, and 7.3% to 7.5% higher by the early 1990s. Foreign experience in solving the problem of reproducing mineral raw material bases shows that economically developed countries widely adopt the form of vertical participation to allocate funds for mineral prospecting and exploration work. Especially minerals that are of strategic importance to every country and are in short supply. For example, the United States lists more than 40 minerals. Australia’s national investment in prospecting and exploration reaches 30% to 40% of the planned funds, the UK’s is 33% to 35%, Canada is 38% to 40%, the United States is 50% to 70%, and Japan is 75% ~80%. The state's investment is partly a risk compensation investment for prospecting and exploration costs, regardless of the results of the completed geological exploration work.
The special fund for the reproduction of mineral raw material bases stipulated in my country's "Underground Resources Law" is essentially a compensation for the country's early investment in the discovery and exploration of mineral areas (oil fields). According to legal provisions, even if the mining area (oil field) has been privatized, all compensation fees should be invested in underground resource exploration. However, various oil companies were and still are unwilling to invest funds in the reproduction business of raw material bases, and enterprises and companies engaged in solid mineral mining will not invest more than 12% of the required funds even in exploration work that is of great significance to their own development. ~15%. From 1994 to 2000, the total compensation fees for various mining areas in Russia only reached 40% to 80% of the previous state investment. Of course, the ability to reasonably evaluate the country’s previous investment in mining (oil field) exploration is also an important issue. Only by establishing a high-level evaluation method can we ensure that every miner (oil) enjoys fair competition conditions.
Since 1993, Russia has used compensation fees for the reproduction of raw material bases as the main source of funding for geological exploration. However, with the entry into force of the Second Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the system of withdrawing funds for the reproduction of mineral raw material bases was gradually abolished. The government decided to arrange the 2001 budget according to a new management model. The fiscal authorities accepted the new tax law without fully understanding it. This not only resulted in the use of two types of funds that should have completely different economic connotations and directions. Rent from underground resources and special funds extracted for the reproduction of mineral raw material bases) are lumped together and integrated into the budget. In 2001, the special fund for the reproduction of mineral raw material bases was abolished, and starting in 2002, plans were made to abolish the self-financing mechanism. As a result, the allocation for federal geological work decreased from 12.3 billion rubles in 2000 to 5.9 billion rubles in 2001. The abolition of compensation fees for the reproduction of mineral raw material bases since 2002 has completely deprived the Russian Federation of its dominant position in funding its own geological survey tasks. It has also provided an excuse for mining companies to sharply reduce their investment in geological exploration.
In this case, the Russian government should organize multi-party demonstrations to determine how much funds are needed to ensure the needs of the national economy and the normal reproduction of the raw material base? The main task of the state in regulating the reproduction of raw material bases is to protect investment and ensure that the base reproduction process reaches a certain rate.
The model that should be followed in the existing investment methods to ensure the reproduction of raw material bases: simple reproduction of raw material bases relies on the own funds of enterprises-resource users, while expanded reproduction comes from the national budget. solve. Under this model, Russia’s national conditions should be taken into consideration when considering the composition of funds. If all reserves in active mining areas and backup mining areas are proven by state investment, then Russia's "historical" investment in geological exploration work should be converted into capital for the reproduction of the raw material base. We suggest that the state should pool all transformed capital according to this model and use it as a special fund for the reproduction of mineral raw material bases. In this way, resource users can completely ignore peripheral or new area issues. Entrust the reproduction of this part of the raw material base to the state-owned geological exploration company and let them complete the entire process from area transfer to exploration. These tasks should be financed from the special fund for the reproduction of mineral raw material bases and from other sources (budgets of federal entities, private funds of enterprises). If necessary, the geological exploration unit of the mining company can be involved in the work in order to complete the exploration task. After the license and lease contract are processed, the proven mineral deposits can be transferred to the mining company. Once a mineral deposit is put into development, the mining company should withhold funds as a special fund for the reproduction of the mineral raw material base to ensure the normal production cycle order.
We believe that from the perspective of economic rationality, the problem of reproducing mineral raw material bases mainly depends on two aspects:
·Establishing stable funding for geological exploration work through legislation Mechanisms, these legislations include the national special budget fund for the reproduction of mineral raw material bases and the improvement of the tax system in the field of mineral raw materials;
·Develop special taxation measures for resource users.
As we all know, the "Special State Budget Fund for the Reproduction of Mineral Raw Material Bases", as a tax that is conducive to the sustainable development of mineral raw material bases, has been legislated at the State Duma Congress on September 15, 1999. The draft law covers reserves reproduction funds, large-scale engineering project funds and management measures for the effective use of funds. The purpose of the legislation is to standardize the management of funds dedicated to the exploration, prospecting and evaluation of new areas, because the results of geological work in new areas are one of the important prerequisites for ensuring national economic independence and security. The law stipulates that appropriations from the fund can only be used for large-scale projects included in the five-year national geological work plan approved by the Government of the Russian Federation, or large-scale projects included in the state land plan approved by the subjects of the Russian Federation.
The law will strictly control the use of funds and stipulates that the allocation ratio of funds in the federal budget is 7:3, that is, funds must be concentrated on the development of new prospective areas and new continental shelf areas. The draft law adjusts the allocation ratio of funds between federal planning and local planning. Replace the existing ratio of 1:9 with a federal funds allocation ratio of 7:3. The People's Council of the Russian Federation has formulated a new tax allocation ratio for the reproduction of mineral raw material bases: 20% will be allocated to the federal budget, unchanged for 5 years: the remaining 80% will be allocated to the federal subject budget, and will be reduced by 20% from the original value every year starting from the second year. %. In order to implement large-scale federal engineering projects, it is necessary to focus on the use of mineral raw material base reproduction funds, which can also promote geological exploration work to improve economic benefits. At the same time, according to the provisions of page 44 of the Russian Federation's "Subterranean Resources Law", all resource compensation fees generated for the mining of ordinary minerals and groundwater for local needs should be fully placed under the jurisdiction of federal subjects. From a national perspective, the total amount of these compensation fees only accounts for a few percentage points.
It is also important to emphasize that in accordance with the "Law on State Budget Funds for the Reproduction of Mineral Raw Material Bases", enterprises engaged in geological exploration work within the national plan can retain the part of the funds allocated to the federal budget.
A key issue in the reproduction of the mineral raw material base is the allocation of funds between the federal and local budgets. In accordance with the requirements of federal law and the division of jurisdictional objects between the state and subjects of the Russian Federation, in the "Law on Subsoil Resources" (page 44), this part of the fund for the reproduction of mineral raw material bases for the federal geological survey program is provided as Earmarks go into the federal budget. In this way, the laws of the subjects of the Russian Federation also regulate the use of funds included in the local budget. Local governments have the right to allocate a certain proportion of funds to mining companies that conduct independent geological surveys, but they must abide by the provisions of earmarked funds. Federal law does not specify the allocation ratio of funds between the federal center and each federal subject.
It is worth mentioning that in recent years, new situations have emerged in the legal practice of fund allocation and use. Since the Council of Federation of the Russian Federation approved the new withdrawal ratio of the Fund for the Reproduction of Mineral Raw Material Bases, in 1996 it was clarified the amount that all federal subjects should withdraw. However, 30 of the 86 federal entities in Russia (accounting for 28.7%) did not pay the funds that should be withdrawn to the federal budget, but retained these funds locally. According to regulations, the total amount entering the Russian federal budget should account for 22.9% of the total fund, and the remaining 71.1% is allocated to local governments, of which 45.7% can enter the local federal subject budget, and 54.3% is used by local mining companies. However, Tatar, Bashkir, Udmurtia Autonomous Republic and Tomsk Oblast did not do this. At the same time, during the review, it was found that the funds retained in the local area were not fully earmarked. For example, between 1996 and 1997, the Bashkir Autonomous Republic spent more than 15% of its mineral raw material base reproduction funds in other directions. In other words, although the principles are stipulated in the "Act on the Budget Fund for the Reproduction of the National Mineral Raw Material Base", each federal subject cannot guarantee the conscientious implementation of the stipulated appropriation conditions in the creation and use of this fund.
The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources is most concerned about the future funding prospects for geological exploration work. They proposed that the task of the state-owned geological exploration team is to complete the investigation of underground resources that is urgently needed by society and the federal state, including scientific predictions, conducting basic geological research, identifying resource potential, evaluating underground resources, preparing national mining development plans, and Strengthen the analysis function, carry out strategic planning and strengthen the country's management of underground resources and other tasks.
In the internal report of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation "Ecological environment and natural resources until 2010", it is said that the tasks of the local natural resources departments and the natural resources committees of the federal entities are to pass the federal entities and companies budget to form a geological exploration service market. This view is consistent with the proposal in 2001 to abolish the special fund for the reproduction of mineral raw material bases and the People's Council of the Russian Federation to abolish the fund for the development of raw material bases.
Some leaders also pointed out that “the idea of ????the national budget policy is that the state will be less involved in the development and construction of the mineral raw material sector, including the reproduction of raw material bases, in order to reduce the state’s investment in geological exploration.” We are opposed to the above policy. The major negative impact of this is that it destroys the mechanism to promote investment in geological exploration work and loses the economic stimulus effect of the tax system on resource users. The state does not consider that it is beneficial to the country for companies to invest in geological exploration work with their own funds. . Many scholars and practitioners believe that the reason why the national competent authorities abolished the reproduction tax on mineral raw material bases and reduced the proportion of resource compensation fees for raw material base reproduction is that they do not understand the economic essence of raw material base reproduction and just blindly copy foreign resource use regulations.
In this context, we must emphasize that according to normal mining growth rates, a number of important mineral reserves will be completely or partially depleted by the end of 2005. Therefore, we must regard mineral prospecting as the main line of our top priority in the first decade of the 21st century. National funds from the federal budget should be used in key geological exploration directions to ensure Russia’s regional political and geopolitical interests and the security of the country’s mineral raw materials. Serve. This is the development strategy of Russia's geological exploration work.