MOSCOW, December 24, 0:16 /ITAR-TASS/. A bill prohibiting the placing of assets from the Reserve Fund and the National Welfare Fund in foreign banks operating in Russia and abroad and the use of such assets for the purchase of foreign securities and other financial instruments has been referred to the State Duma, lower house of parliament.
Deputies Mikhail Serdyuk and Oleg Mikheyev, both of the Just Russia party, submitted the bill.
“If there are surplus funds that can justifiably be placed in foreign banks, this should be determined by a separate bill. Doing this by a government decision will be impossible from now on,” Serdyuk, one of the authors of the proposed legislation, told ITAR-TASS.
The Bank of Russia has certain powers to manage the Reserve Fund’s assets, while the assets of the National Welfare Fund are managed by the Bank of Russia and also by specialised financial organisations in accordance with the agreements concluded by the Finance Ministry in the procedures stipulated by the Russian government.
The Bank of Russia performs transactions with federal budget funds without commission. The placement of assets from regional and local budgets in foreign banks in Russia and abroad and their use for the purchase of foreign securities or other financial instruments is also prohibited under the bill.
Meanwhile, budget funds can be used under inter-governmental agreements and in foreign economic activities. “The placement and use of currency instruments will be possible to pay for goods and services and so on,” Serdyuk said.