Fulfillment of obligations: in the next three years, 7.7 trillion has been budgeted for the implementation of the people’s program of “United Russia”. rubles

The budget of the Russian Federation for 2024-2026 passed the first reading

The State Duma is discussing Russia’s budget for the next three years. It reflects our instructions from the president and the provisions of the people’s program of the United Russia party. The party faction unanimously supported the document in the first reading. However, it is planned to make some additions to the second reading, in particular, spending on rural development, stimulating industry, supporting science and education, as well as on the social sphere will increase.

At a meeting of the United Russia faction with the participation of Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Secretary of the General Council Andrei Turchak spoke before the plenary session in the State Duma.

“The result was a fairly balanced budget. As for the people’s program, all the events that we have planned have a specific line in the budget. Therefore, in September 2024, when the next Unified Voting Day arrives, we will have something to report on the implementation of the people’s program,” he emphasized.

In turn, Siluanov identified three main budget priorities. According to him, this is ensuring defense security and contributing to the Victory, fulfilling all social obligations and ensuring technological independence, as well as modernizing the Russian economy.

“All the tasks that the President set in his message and in the decisions of the people’s program are included in the budget. School renovations and “Professionality”, primary health care – these projects are taken into account. The costs of increasing wages for public sector employees have been taken into account in full, and support has been provided for the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. A higher level of minimum wage, pension provision, indexation of social payments, maternal capital,” the minister said.

Thus, according to the document, the minimum wage will be indexed by 18.5%. Such a rise will ensure an increase in wages for almost 5 million people. Benefits, pensions, and maternal capital will also be indexed. In this case, indexation will be commensurate with the inflation rate. It is important that for the first time, unemployment benefits will begin to be indexed annually starting next year. Funds are provided for a long-term care program for pensioners and the disabled.

Expenditures on the country’s security will increase: to ensure defense capability, increase purchases for the needs of the army, and provide for military personnel on the front line. More than a trillion rubles will be spent annually on the development of road infrastructure. And for the technological development of Russia – more than 120 billion rubles.

For the second reading of the budget, the party worked out a number of amendments; they can be roughly divided into several blocks: rural development and support for farmers, stimulation of industry and ensuring technological sovereignty, support for education and science, and the social sphere.

As Turchak said, it is proposed to increase funding for the program for the comprehensive development of rural areas by 26.4 billion rubles. In addition, an additional 9 billion rubles will be allocated to modernize and equip colleges and technical schools with modern educational and production complexes.

“We will also increase funding for courses for high school students to teach modern programming languages ​​by 3 billion rubles. And we will allocate 1.5 billion rubles to support engineering developments at our universities and scientific organizations,” added Turchak.

The Secretary of the General Council of United Russia noted that it was possible to agree with the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Finance to increase funding for vocational training programs for certain categories of citizens by 6 billion rubles. The issue of allocating additional funds for the purchase of medicines for patients with cardiovascular diseases has been resolved. 6 billion rubles will be allocated for these purposes.

“We see a continuation of the path of a socially oriented budget for the next difficult period ahead. The electorate already needs to be prepared for the upcoming elections, and if the support of the leader of our state is beyond doubt, then there are still negative notes regarding the party in power. In this regard, the party’s approach to implementing the people’s program with an emphasis on infrastructure and social projects, as well as the obligation to report on their implementation in advance of the September 2024 elections, seems constructive. In the context of the SBO, an approach aimed at improving the living conditions of the country’s population requires not only serious attention, but also an increase in budget expenditures, a signal of readiness to commit which we are now seeing,” – Public Commissioner for Debt Market Issues Pavel Penkin.