Chelyabinsk Governor Alexey Texler made a number of proposals to ensure the budget balance of the regions, including indexing the amount of subsidies for equalizing budgets, starting partial crediting of tobacco excise taxes to regional budgets and making infrastructure budget loans permanent, the press service of the regional government reported on Monday.
The head of the region, as the head of the State Council's working group on Economics and Finance, made proposals to preserve the stability of regional budgets at public hearings of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation devoted to discussing the parameters of the draft federal budget for 2023 and for the planning period of 2024 and 2025.
"Texler made a number of proposals to ensure the budgetary sustainability of the regions: index the volume of subsidies for equalizing budgets, at the expense of the planned annual indexation of excise taxes on tobacco, start their partial enrollment in the budgets of the regions and gradually increase the share of regions in enrollments for them to 10%, make infrastructure budget loans (IBC) a permanent support mechanism, because they help in the implementation of major projects," the message says.
According to Texler, now for the next year, the indexation of the volume of subsidies for budget alignment is set at 8.5% - this is higher than the 7% initially discussed and higher than the inflation forecast of 5.5% for the next year. "Thanks for the upward revision of the indexation, but it still does not cover this year's inflation. According to the current forecast, it will be 12.4%, and we believe it should be taken into account completely. We suggest returning to the topic during the year and finding appropriate funds as the budget is executed. The inflation of the previous year was not covered in the same way. Therefore, we propose to amend Article 131 of the Budget Code to take into account the accumulated inflation of the current year," the press service quotes the governor's words.
He also noted that there is a decision to continue issuing the IBC in 2026, and it would be right to go to the end, making the IBC tool permanent. "With what annual funding is a subject for discussion. The main thing is for everyone to know that there will be such a tool, and calmly prepare projects for serious infrastructure tasks," explained Texler.
In addition, the governor proposed to improve the mechanism of accounting for state guarantees within the debt. "Now 100% of their chosen volume is considered a debt, although the guarantee is a surety. With responsible handling, it does not incur any expenses for the budget, including for its service. The use of this tool needs to be made more flexible so that the regions can work more effectively with debt. And the released resource should be directed to new investment projects or priority expenditures, which means development," Texler said.
"Alexey Leonidovich made proposals from the State Council Commission on Finance and Budget, so we can consider that these are such generalized proposals of governors, members of the commission, which were discussed within the framework of the State Council," the press service quotes the words of the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko.
The main report at the parliamentary hearings was made by the Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Anton Siluanov. Speaking about inter-budgetary relations, the Minister stressed that the financial support of the regions from the federal budget will continue. Inter-budget transfers in 2023 are set at 3.2 trillion rubles, of which about 900 billion rubles are provided for the implementation of national projects, he said. Support will be provided to ensure the payment of wages and increase the minimum wage, the implementation of infrastructure loans, the issuance of concessional loans will continue, support will be deployed for the construction and modernization of infrastructure through the housing and communal services fund, the minister said. In order to adapt the regions in connection with the abolition of consolidated groups of taxpayers, a compensating mechanism is provided. "The priority for the next three years will be the full integration of new regions into the Russian Federation. The budget provides the necessary resources for this," the press service of the Federation Council quotes Siluanov's words.
Source:
ria.ru