North

Northern themes cannot be avoided in this year's budget process. Even despite the fact that the budget bill for 2001 provides for a more than twofold (6.65 billion rubles compared to the current 3 billion) increase in federal funding for northern deliveries. And the point is not that the deputies will probably propose increasing the amount of funding - the Duma Committee on Problems of the North and the Far East believes that 9 billion rubles should be allocated from the federal treasury for northern deliveries. The subject of discussions in the budget committee and further bargaining with the government will almost certainly be other budget items that are somehow related to the North. And they have been significantly reduced in the draft budget for next year (see table) .

However, whatever the outcome of the trade between the deputies and the government on the topic of the North, it does not guarantee normal supplies to hard-to-reach areas. This is confirmed by the latest data from the Ministry of Economic Development. The funds provided for in the budget for northern deliveries this year, Deputy Head of the Ministry Mukhamet Tsikanov said yesterday, have been transferred in full. In addition, 600 million rubles went to the regions. out of an additional 1.2 billion. Despite this, the volume of product deliveries is traditionally low: 67.8% of the plan was delivered to hard-to-reach regions, coal - 62% and food - 20%.

The legislative and executive authorities are trying to solve this imbalance between financing and physical volumes of supplies in their own way. The State Duma has developed and plans to discuss at the autumn session a bill “On the supply of products to populated areas in the north of Russia with special conditions for the delivery of goods,” and the Ministry of Economic Development is developing a new scheme for transferring funds to the regions, which could prevent their disappearance.

Financing of northern positions in the laws on the federal budget for 2000 and 2001, million rubles.

Position name	Budget Law 2000	Draft Budget Law 2001	Change, %
Northern delivery	3000	6650	221.7
Housing subsidies for leaving northerners	850	350	41.2
Compensation of electricity tariffs for the territories of the Far East and Arkhangelsk region	1000	1500	150
Support for reindeer husbandry	10	not indicated
“Children of the North” program	85.2	82.4	96.7
Program “Economic and social development of indigenous peoples of the North”	83.5	78.0	93.4
Program “Socio-economic development of the Kuril Islands”	111.65	59.65	53.4
Program “Economic and social development of the Far East and Transbaikalia” 178.9	153.5	85.8

Elena ZAGORODNYAYA