Already 29 out of 32 State Duma committees have supported the adoption of the draft federal budget in the first reading

By the end of last week, 29 out of 32 Duma committees had already supported the adoption in the first reading of the draft federal budget for 2024 and the subsequent two-year period. The committees headed by representatives of the parliamentary opposition made the most comments in their conclusions. In addition, a number of committees pointed out the need to work out in more detail issues related to new territories in the main financial document.

The government submitted the draft federal budget for 2024 and the planning period for 2025 and 2026 to the State Duma on September 29. Its main parameters are as follows: income at the level of 35 trillion rubles. in 2024, 33.5 trillion in 2025 and 34.1 trillion in 2026; expenses – 36.6 trillion, 34.4 trillion and 35.6 trillion rubles. respectively. Consideration of the draft in the first reading is scheduled for October 26.

The largest number of comments on the budget were traditionally made by committees headed by deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Thus, the Committee on Women, Family and Children under the leadership of Nina Ostanina in its conclusion noted a significant reduction in expenditures under the “additional education” section for 2024 compared to the forecast given in last year’s budget (23.5 billion rubles against 31.6 billion). At the same time, for 2025, expenses for this item are planned slightly more than in last year’s forecast—RUB 13.3 billion. versus 12.6 billion. “We should be extremely careful about reducing allocations in this area,” the committee believes. In addition, deputies propose to introduce compensation payments to all children under the age of 18 who were injured during a special military operation and to families in which a child died. It is also necessary to “pay more attention to the development of new demographically oriented measures” and, in particular, to increase allocations for the “Providing Housing for Young Families” program, given that real estate is becoming more expensive. In addition, the committee believes, it is necessary to achieve 100% accessibility of kindergartens, index maternity capital (its indexation has not been carried out since 2022) and increase subsidies to the Fund for Support of Children in Difficult Life Situations (in the draft budget – 855 million rubles per year) .

The Committee for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic (chaired by communist Nikolai Kharitonov) draws attention to the reduction in allocations for programs for the socio-economic development of the Far Eastern Federal District and the Arctic zone. According to the deputies, it is necessary to provide more funds for air transportation, recreation and health care for children, support for the traditional economic activities of indigenous peoples, provision of housing for residents of the North, etc. And the Committee on Agrarian Issues, headed by Vladimir Kashin (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), proposed increasing spending on land reclamation and development of rural areas.

Some committees led by representatives of United Russia (UR) also expressed wishes to increase spending. For example, the Committee on Information Policy, chaired by Alexander Khinshtein, draws attention to the fact that 15 billion rubles were allocated for the provision of communication services in 2023, and only 5.6 billion in 2024, and considers it necessary to return funding for this area to the current level of the year. The committee also asks in its conclusion to increase costs for providing grant support to corporate customers to replace foreign IT solutions with new Russian developments and for modernizing post offices. The Health Protection Committee (Badma Bashankaev, United Russia), in turn, is concerned about the reduction in allocations for the federal project “Combating Diabetes Mellitus” by 10% annually in 2024–2026. And the Ecology Committee, headed by former Minister of Natural Resources Dmitry Kobylkin, is worried about a significant decrease in funding for the Clean Air project compared to the volumes included in last year’s draft budget (from 10.3 million to 4.1 million rubles) and notes noticeable underfunding of specially protected natural areas.

Several committees provided “non-material” advice to the government in their feedback. For example, the Committee on Economic Policy (chaired by Maxim Topilin, United Russia), having studied the forecast of socio-economic development of the Russian Federation, agreed that it could be the basis for budget formation, but invited the Cabinet of Ministers, in particular, to continue work on analyzing risks for the most important sectors of the economy and develop a “road map” to support investment activity. The Committee on CIS Affairs (Leonid Kalashnikov, Communist Party of the Russian Federation) asked to allocate a block of migration issues to a separate state program and budget section. The Committee for the Development of Civil Society (Olga Timofeeva, United Russia) considered it necessary to strengthen control over the expenditure of funds allocated to support NGOs, for which the government and the Accounts Chamber, according to the deputies, should prepare appropriate methodological recommendations. The Committee on Industry and Trade under the leadership of Vladimir Gutenev (ER) expressed similar wishes for the work of the Accounts Chamber.

The Transport Committee (Evgeny Moskvichev, United Russia) considers it necessary to extend the implementation of the “Safe Quality Roads” and “Comprehensive Plan for the Modernization and Expansion of Main Infrastructure” projects until 2030 (they are completed in 2024). The Committee for the Protection of Competition (Valery Gartung, “A Just Russia – For Truth”) proposed discussing possible legislative measures to abolish the “tax maneuver” and transfer the tax burden from domestic consumption to exports.

A number of conclusions pay special attention to new constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Thus, the Committee on Regional Policy (Alexey Didenko, LDPR) points out the need to include in the Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period until 2025 special provisions related to new territories that need to be given geostrategic status. And the Committee on Housing and Communal Services (Sergey Pakhomov, United Russia) proposes to analyze the actual state of the remaining housing stock in new regions, indicating the amount of funding for the resettlement of citizens, and to include this issue in the draft budget for the second reading.

Finally, the two “power” committees came to the conclusion that they were satisfied with almost everything in the draft budget. The Defense Committee, headed by United Russia member Andrei Kartapolov, reported in its conclusion that the allocated volumes of budgetary allocations will ensure the fulfillment of the assigned tasks and the implementation of the main strategic goals for the development of the armed forces of the Russian Federation. (Recall that it is proposed to increase defense spending in 2024 by 68% compared to 2023: taking into account the closed and open parts of the budget, allocations under the “National Defense” section will amount to 10.77 trillion rubles in 2024, and in 2025 – 8.53 trillion and in 2026 – 7.4 trillion.) And the Security Committee (Vasily Piskarev, United Russia) emphasized that the planned expenses for core items are “adequate to the current situation in the relevant areas of activity.” At the same time, the committee noted the need to continue work on analyzing and assessing the results of the implementation of state programs.

Ksenia Veretennikova