The Ministry of Finance proposed a program of “frontal reduction” of budget expenditures

The Finance Ministry has come up with an initiative to cut government spending in the next year’s budget. The program was presented by Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov at a meeting of the government commission on budget projections on June 29. Two sources close to the government told Vedomosti about this, the information was confirmed by an interlocutor familiar with the meeting. Siluanov suggested that the departments cut spending by 10%. It was about the so-called unprotected budget expenditures (with the exception of obligations subject to indispensable fulfillment, primarily social ones). Freed up spending can be redistributed.

The participants of the meeting, representing the managers of budgetary funds, reacted mostly negatively, although they agreed that it was necessary to optimize spending. In response, almost all speakers suggested that departments should be allowed to determine on their own what spending is a priority for them and what can be abandoned, instead of reducing spending across the entire perimeter of programs.