Russia's Vice Premier, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
|
 |
Kudrin Suggest Easing Budget Discipline
Russia’s Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin will report to the cabinet today about execution of this year’s budget and present the plan for state spending till the year-end. Judging by the government’s documents elaborated for the meeting, Finance Ministry has changed tactics of opposing the so-called budget curtain.
The highlight of today’s sitting of cabinet is Kudrin’s report on executing the federal budget in 2007. Finance Ministry had already announced the failure to meet targets in part of budget spending.
“The nine-month execution of budget cash spending was just 83.4 percent of target indicators,” Kudrin said in the report submitted to the government. The explanation of Finance Ministry is “the budget tradition of key administrators of budget funds to draw their budget [money] in the fourth quarter.”
Nine departments met budget targets at 50 percent and four departments had less than 25 percent, Finance Ministry’s representative said yesterday.
As a way-out, Finance Ministry suggests transferring 475 billion rubles of unspent budget funds to 2008, executing the budget at just 91 percent this year vs. 96.2 percent in 2006.
Inflation is the root cause of Kudrin’s decision to ease budget discipline. The minister is evidently unable to contain the state spending growth.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 28, 2007
|
|
|
