Gazprom took over the deficit – Newspaper Kommersant No. 210 (7411) dated 11/14/2022

According to the results of ten months, the federal budget was executed with a surplus of 128 billion rubles, the Ministry of Finance announced on Friday. With revenues of 22.139 trillion rubles. expenses amounted to 22.011 trillion rubles. Formally, this outcome looks like a change in trend, because since June, the budget balance has only worsened, and it closed with a deficit for four months in a row. Therefore, the surplus from the peak value in May of 1.495 trillion rubles. according to the results of September, decreased to only 55 billion rubles. and with such dynamics, it should have been replaced by a deficit.

This, however, did not happen – thanks to a large one-time tax receipt from Gazprom, the budget ended up in a surplus in October separately. Last month, 453 billion rubles were immediately received from the MET for gas, almost the same as in the previous nine months (the average monthly tax this year is 54 billion rubles). Such a surge is explained by the receipt from Gazprom of the first third of the amount of additional MET (416 billion out of 1.244 trillion rubles), which it will have to pay to the budget after refusing to pay dividends to shareholders for 2021. Without this factor, the federal budget would have been closed in ten months with a deficit of about 350 billion rubles.

In general, in January-October, thanks to increased prices for energy resources, oil and gas revenues are in a significant plus compared to last year, amounting to 9.788 trillion rubles. (34% more than in January-October 2021). The situation with non-oil and gas revenues (12.352 trillion rubles) looks worse: minus 6% for ten months and minus 20% separately for October.

According to the latest “put on paper” calculations of the Ministry of Finance (to the budget package submitted to the State Duma for the next three years), a budget deficit of 1.3 trillion rubles, or 0.9% of GDP, is expected by the end of this year. The Ministry of Finance, however, admitted that due to recent new spending, the deficit could become more significant. It is planned to close the expected hole in the budget at the expense of the accumulations of the National Welfare Fund. In October, it was first used to replenish the revenue side of the state treasury. As reported by the financial department, 260 billion rubles were allocated from the fund for this. To do this, part of the currency frozen due to sanctions on the accounts of the Ministry of Finance with the Central Bank (euro, pounds and yen) was conditionally converted into rubles, that is, in fact, a ruble issue was made.

Vadim Visloguzov