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Russian finance minister pledges there will be no budget sequestration

"It is not expenditure cuts but fixing priorities based on new tasks,” he told journalists

MOSCOW, June 24 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has vowed the country’s budget would not be sequestrated.

“Some say we are sequestrating the budget, cutting expenditures. But as a matter of fact, it is not expenditure cuts but fixing priorities based on new tasks,” he told journalists on Monday.

“We have suggested expenditures on education and culture be included in the budgets of the existing bodies,” he said and added that those budgets do have some reserves for that. “The social bloc in fact must yield some results from the reforms that are being conducted,” he noted.

According to Siluanov, both revenues and expenditures of the budget are being cut. Thus, according to the latest adjustment, the budgetary revenues in 2014 will be down by 628.6 billion roubles on the parameters fixed in the law on the budget for 2013-2015 (13.435 trillion roubles instead of 14.063 trillion roubles). In 2015, revenues will be down by 923.4 trillion roubles (14.692 trillion instead of the forecasted 15.615 trillion). In 2016, revenues are planned at 15.740 trillion roubles.

Further on, the 2014 expenditures will be down by 360 billion roubles on the figure fixed in the law (13.847 trillion roubles instead of 14.207 trillion roubles). In 2015, budget expenditures will be down by 390.6 billion roubles to reach 15.326 trillion roubles (instead of the planned 15.626 trillion roubles). In 2016, expenditures will be 16.289 trillion roubles. At the same time, Siluanov stressed that in nominal terms, budgetary expenditures in 2014 will go up by 460 billion roubles on 2013. In 2015, they will be up by 1.388 trillion roubles on 2014, and further up in 2016 by 1.053 trillion roubles on 2015. “We have considerable growth but it is eaten up by the resolutions on the purchase of arms and military hardware, on cash allowances, on state programs,” he added.