MOSCOW, September 10. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia's President Vladimir Putin will hold a regular meeting with the government members on Wednesday to review the accomplishment of tasks set in the Address to the Federal Assembly (parliament) in furtherance of the May Decrees of 2012, the Kremlin press service reported.
The press service report says, "Those present at the meeting are to discuss, in particular, the drafting of a Federal budget for 2015 and for the plan period of 2016 and 2017, as well as a number of matters of current importance".
Government forecasts have it that a 2015 budget will be drawn up with a deficit of 0.5% of gross domestic product (GDP). This accords with the basic principles of the government's budgetary policy, according to which deficit should not exceed one percent of GDP. Meanwhile, the question of an additional financing of some or other sectors arises increasingly often of late.
Last week, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev came out in favour of increasing State support for domestic agriculture. A statement to this effect was made against the background of the food embargo introduced by Russia in reply to sanctions imposed by a number of countries. The Premier emphasized that an increase in State assistance on the whole "must be set out in next year's budget". However, the initiative was not upheld by the Ministry of Finance.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov had pointed out earlier that the situation with budget in Russia was a no easy one and that the Finance Ministry could not grant all proposals from Ministries and agencies about an increase in expenditure. "When fixing a budget for 2015-2017, we heard a large number of proposals made b y ministries and agencies, the proposals which we, unfortunately, were unable to grant, for we lack resources for an additional financing," Siluanov pointed out way back at the end of August.