Translated material
How does the state get rich?
Deficit budgets remained in only 11 Russian regions
The growth of the economy and wages of Russians contributes to a rapid increase in regional budget revenues. According to the Ministry of Finance, in the first half of the year they grew by more than 35% compared to the same period last year. The own incomes of the subjects of the federation (excluding financial assistance from the federal center) increased by approximately the same amount. This growth was provided mainly by the two largest sources - taxes on profits and personal income.As Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said at a government meeting last Thursday, regional budget revenues increased by 415 billion rubles in the first half of the year. compared to the same period in 2006. The total surplus amounted to 269 billion rubles as of July 1. Only 11 federal subjects ended the half-year with a budget deficit, the minister said.
An important role in improving the state of regional budgets was played by the Ministry of Finance’s new policy of encouraging regions that have achieved the best financial and economic indicators. At the beginning of summer, the Ministry of Finance distributed 1 billion rubles. between entities that showed the best results in socio-economic development and financial management. The best were the Lipetsk region - it received 61.7 million rubles, Chuvashia - 58 million rubles. and Rostov region - 57.35 million rubles. The money, as the ministry admits, is not that big. Therefore, next year there will be 2 billion rubles in bonuses.
The Ministry of Finance assessed regions by the growth of industry, investment, own income, per capita income, life expectancy, birth rate and the proportion of the population below the poverty line. In addition, among the criteria are the dynamics of expenses for maintaining officials, the size of the administrative apparatus per capita, and the number of public sector employees. The Ministry of Finance also took into account the dynamics of accounts payable of budgetary institutions, the share of debt to citizens, the number of violations of the Budget Code, the presence of a medium-term development plan, the prevalence of compulsory health insurance, the ratio of debts of housing and communal services enterprises to the volume of their services.
For the next distribution of bonuses, the criteria will be clarified, including for a fairer comparison of industrial and agricultural regions.
The three-year budget of Russia, first adopted for 2008-2010 , according to the general assessment, further stimulates regions to actively expand the tax base and search for new sources of income. The fact is that the subjects of the federation, regardless of how much their incomes increase, will know that they will receive a guaranteed amount of interbudgetary transfers from the federal center. In other words, regions receive a powerful incentive to earn money without fear that financial assistance will be cut.
True, the heads of the constituent entities will not be able to “raise” their region by attracting external borrowings. Restrictions on the attraction of external loans by regions are imposed by the law “On the peculiarities of the issue and circulation of state and municipal securities” and the Budget Code (currently, Russian regions can place Eurobonds only as part of the refinancing of existing external debt). The Ministry of Finance says that the conditions for attracting external and internal borrowings for strong regions have practically leveled out and it makes no sense for them to strive for the foreign debt market.
However, the search for meaning is an individual activity, and the regions could well determine for themselves where to get money for development. The explanation for the ban on foreign loans is different: it would hardly be desirable for the country today to attract new portions of dollars, especially by government authorities, in conditions of excess money in circulation.
“We believe that in three years this situation will normalize and regional borrowing will not affect monetary circulation,” Deputy Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in July. According to him, starting from 2011, regions whose income from financial assistance from the federal budget is less than 5% will be able to attract external loans. According to the deputy minister, there will be about ten such regions.
Against the backdrop of an improvement in the financial and economic condition of the regions, federal officials stopped frightening territorial authorities with various kinds of restrictions on their activities (depending on the share of transfers from the center in the regional budget), up to the introduction of external financial management. This measure of influence on negligent regions, repeatedly proposed by the Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Southern Federal District Dmitry Kozak, is now provided for by federal legislation. Among the regions that could theoretically fall under the distribution are mainly Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan. However, today the federal center is clearly unable to quarrel with local elites, who are categorically against such deep interference by Moscow in their economic and financial affairs.