Finance Ministry managed to agree with deputies and senators on inter-budget relations, including the fund for financial backup of the regions and for the regional development fund.
Photo: Ilya Pitalev
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Finance Ministry Wins Zero Reading
The zero reading of 2007 draft budget stepped up the costs by 50 billion rubles vs. 200 billion rubles called for by State Duma's deputies. The government will seal the draft on August 17, unleashing another battle for spending escalation.
In time of zero reading of 2007 draft budget, Finance Ministry, State Duma and Federation Council reached an accord on interbudget relations, including the fund for region’s financial backup and the regional development fund. The former will widen to 260 billion rubles in 2007 from 238 billion rubles in 2006, while the latter will go up 1.5 fold, from 2.8 billion rubles in 2006 to 4.2 billion rubles in 2007, Deputy Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said yesterday.
Another achievement of zero reading was changing distribution of regional portion of petroleum excise. The federal budget used to get 40 percent of the amount and the regions retained 60 percent, including 10 percent going directly to budgets and 50 percent distributed among them. But starting from 2007, the excise will be levied not on gasoline stations, but on refineries. So the regions with no refineries in them would be the losers. To prevent it, it was decided to redistribute all 60 percent of the revenues via the federal budget in view of established ratio.
One more result was the growth in housing and municipal services. It was decided to widen the amount from 52 billion rubles to 82 billion rubles.
But all gains notwithstanding, the legislators think they yielded the zero reading. “Finance Ministry stepped up the costs by around 50 billion as a result of the zero reading,” a well-known official of United Russia said on condition of anonymity. “But the State Duma along with United Russia called for around 200 billion rubles.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 11, 2006
|
|
|
