“From reading it becomes bad”: the future budget of Russia scared the deputies of the State Duma

On October 26, the State Duma considered in the first reading the draft budget for 2023–25. Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin called it sanctions and blockade. Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov – a budget that makes you feel bad when you read it. And only Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, taking on the role of a lawyer for the project, defended it as best he could. And he defended.

The battles in the Duma lobbies were hot. But the reason obliges – on Wednesday the deputies discussed the draft of the new budget. Even Vyacheslav Volodin was nervous. The speaker of the lower house noted that today’s draft budget “is being adopted in a situation that we are facing for the first time.”

— The budget of each year is different from the previous ones. The current one is different. Sanctions and a blockade leave a certain imprint,” Volodin said at a factional meeting of United Russia with Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.

And earlier, at similar meetings with the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Communists, first Sergei Mironov, and then Gennady Zyuganov, staged a real shelling of the draft budget.

The leader of the Right-wing Russians expressed his bewilderment at the reduction in the budget for the upcoming three-year period of spending on military science. “If we do not invest in national defense, including military science, we will simply fall behind. And what do we have with this indicator? And I’ll tell you: for the next three years there will be a 30% reduction, ”Mironov did not hide his emotions.

Gennady Zyuganov was even harsher in terms. “The project has 14 sections. For 11 sections, cuts are being made where cuts cannot be made. Pharmaceutics is generally being eliminated as a class. In a country where 8 tablets out of 10 are foreign, and the rest contain imported substances. God forbid they impose sanctions on medicines, what are we going to do?”

Speaking to the Duma members, Anton Siluanov tried to sort through all the pros and cons of the new budget. The main disadvantage is that the estimate is scarce, and for the entire three-year period. In 2023, you will have to live with tightly tightened belts, then it will be a little easier. According to the head of the Ministry of Finance, this year the budget deficit is 1.3 trillion rubles. Next year it will amount to 2.9 trillion, but then it will decrease. As a result, according to forecasts of the department, in 2025 the country will enter without debts. Siluanov went over the main tasks of the new budget. The minister named four main goals: social sphere, ensuring national security, technological independence of the country, development of new territories.

– Social security of citizens is our absolute priority. Benefits, matkapital are fully included in the budget. There will be an indexation of pensions by 1000 rubles. The average insurance pension will be 21,862 rubles,” Siluanov said.

According to the head of the Ministry of Finance, the indexation of social payments next year is expected at the level of 12.3%. Maternal capital payments for the first child will amount to 589.6 thousand rubles. For the second (provided that the parents did not receive money for the first) – 779 thousand. The project also includes preferential mortgages, subsidies for partial repayment of housing loans, renovation of hospitals, career guidance in schools. It is planned to build seven campuses in major cities. 82 billion rubles will be spent on this. The Minister said that the construction will be completed with the creation of new high-class educational institutions.

One of the most painful issues – import substitution – is also planned to be addressed. True, now the name has been changed to “technological independence.” More than 1 trillion 700 billion rubles are prescribed for it in the budget. This includes the creation of a scientific and industrial base, and concessional lending for investment projects, and stimulation of demand. The main directions are electronics and aircraft building. The Ministry of Finance promises electronics engineers the creation of eight new production facilities, and in return expects at least 500 finished projects from them. The future of domestic aviation, according to the financial block of the Cabinet of Ministers, is for the TU-214, MS-21, Superjet and Baikal. 216 billion rubles were approved for production from the budget and another 500 billion from the National Welfare Fund.

In general, the layout of budget revenues and expenditures is as follows. Revenues in 2023 are planned in the amount of 26.1 trillion rubles, in 2024 – 27.2 trillion rubles, in 2025 – almost 28 trillion rubles. Expenses – 29 trillion rubles in 2023, 29.4 trillion rubles – in 2024, 29.2 trillion rubles – in 2025.

Expenditures are distributed as follows: in the first place is social policy – 7.343 trillion rubles, or 25.3% of total expenditures. The second place is national defense, it is given 4.98 trillion rubles, or 17% of the budget. 4.417 trillion rubles are allocated for national security and law enforcement agencies, which is 15% of expenditures.

The discussion of the project turned out to be heated. Even Andrei Makarov, the head of the Duma committee on budget and taxes, was indignant from the podium. The parliamentarian said that, at first glance, the estimate is not a “nightmare-nightmare”. But there is a nuance: “In terms of revenue, the main source is oil. Now our production is declining, and we have stated that we will not sell it to those countries that will introduce a price ceiling. Can we sell as much as is budgeted?” Meanwhile, Makarov noted that 31 Duma committees – co-executors of the project – gave positive opinions on the document.

Nevertheless, after conferring for more than three hours, the Duma members adopted the draft budget in the first reading. 319 deputies voted for, 80 against. There were no abstentions. Recall that United Russia has 324 seats in the lower house of parliament. There are 57 representatives from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, 27 from A Just Russia – For Truth, and 21 deputies represent the LDPR faction in the State Duma.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28899 dated October 27, 2022

Newspaper headline:
Siluanov defended the budget