Govt to compensate losses of farmers from floods in Irkutsk Region

BRATSK, Jul 19 (PRIME) – The government will compensate 250 million rubles of losses of large agricultural companies and over 700 million rubles to small farms incurred from floods in the Irkutsk Region, Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko told President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

The authorities plan to analyze the situation with farmers over the next several days. “We will decide after that. First, the government is to make some tax decisions, we will exempt them from taxes and introduce other compensatory measures, we will also look into financing of losses,” he said.

“We suggest compensation of losses of farmers from the federal budget. Agricultural producers will receive about 250 million rubles from the federal budget. The governor (of the Irkutsk Region) has already decided on small private farms. The budget has already decided on 700 million rubles,” he said.

Putin was dissatisfied with the work of authorities on coping with the emergency. Provision of information to citizens, distribution of humanitarian aid, payments for losses, and construction of infrastructure were poorly organized, he said.

The Irkutsk Region has been suffering from floods since late June, with waters flooding 107 localities, or almost 11,000 houses. The flood killed 25 people, with seven more still missing.

(62.8286 rubles – U.S. $1)

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