Russian Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin (2nd right), Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov (right), Russian Central Bank chairman Sergey Ignatiyev( left) and Russian Federal Financial Markets Service head Oleg Vyugin (2nd left)
Photo: Grigoriy Sobchenko
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The Budget Code: Round 2
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov has approved 17 resolutions to be finalized by officials and resubmitted to the government before the end of the year in order for the new Budget Code to come into force on January 1, 2008. Conciliation of the documents between the Finance Ministry and Ministry of Economic Development and Trade may lead to new battles for control over spending and over the rules for federal targeted investment programs.
The new Budget Code, which passed the State Duma in the spring, calls for three-year budgeting, makes state investment more transparent and divides the stabilization fund into a reserve fund and a fund for future generations. It also creates a so-called fixed oil and gas transfer, which will cover budget deficits from oil and gas income.
The Economics and Finance Ministries are the chief drafters of the documents. The Economics Ministry, which is the main author of seven of the 17 documents, is developing the resolutions concerning long-term federal target programs (Russian abbreviation FTsP) and investment in objects not included in any program. Separate resolutions regulate federal goal-oriented investment programs (Russian abbreviation FAIP), for which 500.1 billion rubles were budgeted this year.
The Finance Ministry is dissatisfied that it has been left out f the investment planning process. On the other hand, that ministry must create a system to evaluate the efficiency of state investment program, which it is so far having trouble doing.
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