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Duma to consider draft federal budget for 2014-2016

The budget expenditures will be for the first time considered not only functionally, but also in the programme context

Photo ITAR-TASS / Stanislav Krasilnikov

Photo ITAR-TASS / Stanislav Krasilnikov

MOSCOW, October 25 (Itar-Tass) - The State Duma on Friday will consider in the first reading the draft law “On the Federal Budget for 2014 and the planning period of 2015 and 2016,” submitted by the RF government.

Chairman of the lower house of parliament, Sergei Naryshkin, on Thursday told reporters that “the discussion will be rather tough, because the budget is complicated.” The lawmakers, he said, would insist on the fulfilment of the social obligations of the state, on ensuring the funding of the decisions and projects, specified in the RF president’s May decrees. In addition, ensuring economic growth and making budget spending more efficient are priorities for the MPs, the speaker said. The lawmakers’ remarks will be “concentrated in a resolution that will form the basis for the finalisation of the budget in the second reading,” Naryshkin said.

The budget expenditures will be for the first time considered not only functionally, but also in the programme context, i.e., proceeding from the goals set by the state programmes.

Chairman of the lower house Budget Committee Andrei Makarov immediately after the introduction of the bill warned that its consideration in the State Duma “will not be a cakewalk for the government,” given the difficult situation in the national economy. Indeed, the debate on the draft budget in the Duma relevant committees had been rather heated and the lawmakers drew attention to the need to adjust state programmes. This position is also shared by the Budget Committee that concludes in the consolidated opinion that budget allocations on all state programmes for 2014-2016 are to be changed, compared with indicators of the passports of the approved state programmes.

The three-year budget presented by the government is “tough instrument” both in terms of the basic parameters and the risks for its execution, said Tatyana Golikova, the head of the Russian Accounts Chamber. Therefore, “the question of the reliability and validity of the indicators itemised in the budget comes to the fore,” she said.

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