MOSCOW, April 17 (Itar-Tass) —— Prime Minister, President Elect Vladimir Putin demands to balance the federal budget. He made the statement at a budgetary planning conference on Tuesday.
The government, which will resign in less than a month, starts the drafting of a new budget for 2013-2015. The new government will finish the work. Most probably, the change of government will have little influence on the priorities of budget expenditures and the formation of the budget revenues. Putin set the key parameters of the new budget, and he will sign it into law as a new chief of state in late summer or in early fall.
“The federal budget had a minor deficit, 0.9% of GDP, in the first quarter of 2012,” Putin said. “The reason is that departments have started spending their funds on schedule. The budget discipline improved. Twenty-one percent of the budget was fulfilled in the first quarter of last year, as against 24% this year,” he noted.
“We will hold a meeting of the budget planning commission next week to consider a socioeconomic development forecast and fundamentals of the tax and customs policy. Today we lay down general approaches to the drafting of these documents,” Putin said.