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Draft budget law to be discussed at parliamentary hearings at Federation Council

Russia's Finance Minister will present the main parameters of the draft federal budget law that has been submitted to the State Duma lower house

MOSCOW, October 8 (Itar-Tass) - The Federation Council upper house of Russia’s parliament on Tuesday will discuss the draft federal budget for 2014 and the planning period of 2015 and 2016, as well as the country’s socio-economic development forecast until 2016. Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov will speak at the parliamentary hearings. He will present the main parameters of the draft federal budget law that has been submitted to the State Duma lower house.

The discussion of the 2014 budget in the upper house of the Russian parliament will be held in the run-up to the bill’s consideration in the first reading. According to the document, approved by the government, the federal budget revenues in 2014 will amount to 13.57 trillion rubles, expenditures - 13.96 trillion rubles. That is, the budget deficit for next year is projected at 0.39 trillion rubles, or 0.5 percent of GDP.

Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko will open the parliamentary hearings. In her opinion, the adoption of the budget law will be the main event of the autumn session. “Maintaining a balance of the federal and regional budgets is the key aspect in its consideration for us,” said the speaker. “We hope that the recommendations that will be worked out at the hearings will be taken into account in the document,” she added.

Head of the Central Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina, Deputy Chairman of the Accounts Chamber Vera Chistova, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Andrei Klepach will also attend the meeting. Members of the State Duma, auditors of the RF Accounts Chamber, representatives of federal bodies of executive authority and heads of the legislative and executive bodies of state authority of the Russian Federation subjects are also invited to take part in the discussion.

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