Page 84 - RusRPTJan23

6.1.2 Budget dynamics - specific issues...
Russia’s federal budget expenditures on the implementation of national projects amounted to 2.784 trillion rubles ($44.2bn) as of December 1, 2022, according to preliminary estimates, the Finance Ministry said in a statement on December 7.
"According to preliminary data, execution of federal budget expenditures on the implementation of national projects as of December 1, 2022, amounted to 2.785 trillion rubles, or 85.1% of planned budget allocations," the ministry said.
Among the projects with the highest completion rate were ‘Demography’ (94.8%), ‘Science and universities’ (93.9%), ‘Culture’ (93.1%), ‘Housing and urban environment’ (92%), ‘Safe high-quality car roads’ (85.7%), ‘Tourism and hospitality industry’ (84.3%), ‘Healthcare’ (82.2%), ‘Small and medium-sized enterprises and support of individual entrepreneurship initiative’ (81.4%), according to the finance ministry.
The national project ‘Labor efficiency’ was 79.6% complete, ‘Education’ - 75.8%, ‘Environment’ - 69.9%, ‘International cooperation and export’ - 69.3%, ‘Digital economy of the Russian Federation’ - 51.6%.
Expenditures on the Comprehensive plan for modernization and expansion of main infrastructure (transport part) 91.9% complete.
Regional deputies who engage in other activities—typically businesspeople who sit on legislative assemblies—will be exempt from income declaration obligations, according to a new bill introduced by Senator Andrey Klishas and Duma deputy Pavel Krasheninnikov. It appears that the Kremlin is throwing a carrot to regional elites with the law. The authorities will further restrict access to income declarations under the bill.
On November 21, President Vladimir Putin signed amendments to the Budget Code, which provide for a change in the budget rule. Since 2017, it has defined basic oil and gas budget revenues as fees from internal taxes on the oil and gas industry and export duties, as if Urals cost $40 per barrel in 2017 prices for the whole year (the figure was indexed by 2% annually). The “surplus” resulting from the fact that the actual oil price exceeded the base one was recorded in additional oil and gas revenues (more than 3 trillion rubles in 2021), which could not be directed to current budget expenditures. In the spring of 2022, the fiscal rule was suspended.
The new budget rule, which will come into effect from 2023, in determining basic oil and gas revenues, is based on the equilibrium price of Urals at $60 with a production of 9.5mn barrels. per day (slightly less than the current level of production), Vedomosti reported. In the budget, it was decided not to fix the
84 RUSSIA Country Report January 2023 www.intellinews.com