Most of the State Duma committees reviewed the draft budget for 2022–2024 and recommended that it be adopted in the first reading. However, their conclusions also contain serious comments on the main financial document of the country. Opposition committee heads, as well as former ministers from United Russia, criticize the budget more willingly than others. This is the basis for future agreements with the government, the expert explains.
Consideration of the budget has become one of the first items on the agenda of the State Duma committees formed last week. Most of them (23 out of 32) have already posted their conclusions in the Duma database. As Kommersant reported, the government in the draft budget for 2022 provides a surplus of 1% of GDP, for 2023 – 0.2%, and for 2024 – again a deficit of 0.3%.
Traditionally, even the committees headed by the opposition recommend approving the budget in the first reading, since the majority of them are deputies from United Russia (ER). But they express their dissatisfaction in the comments to the document.
For example, the head of the committee on CIS affairs Leonid Kalashnikov (KPRF), during the discussion of the project, complained about the lack of support from compatriots abroad. Committee on local government headed by Alexei Didenko (LDPR) drew attention to the insufficiently effective use of budget funds allocated for the implementation of state programs. A significant part of them continues to arrive only by the second half of the year, which still does not allow customers to conclude government contracts on time, the conclusion says.
The committee on education (Chairman – Sergei Kabyshev from A Just Russia – For Truth) believe that for this area “due to underfunding, there are serious risks of failure to achieve indicators for the most important development objectives”, such as the creation of new school places that meet modern requirements. The Committee also considers it necessary to allocate additional funds for the implementation of measures to prevent the formation of third shifts in general education organizations. Head of the Committee on labor and social policy Yaroslav Nilov (LDPR) is dissatisfied with the fact that the draft budget was written based on the inflation forecast for the end of 2021 at 5.8%, while the Ministry of Economy has already adjusted this forecast to 7.4%: thus, the level of indexation of pensions and social payments will be lower than the forecast level of inflation (on October 18, when this conclusion was already ready, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that due to the excess of the actual inflation rate over the budget budgeted social benefits and maternity capital will be indexed additionally for a total amount of about 30 billion rubles .; Corresponding amendments are expected to be adopted by the second reading of the budget. “B”).
At the same time, United Russia members also allow themselves to criticize the budget.
The new head of the committee on ecology and natural resources, ex-Minister of Natural Resources Dmitry Kobylkin. So, in terms of the implementation of the federal project “Preservation of Lake Baikal”, the committee draws attention to the insufficient effectiveness of “measures to reduce the total area of territories exposed to high pollution and affecting Lake Baikal, in order to eliminate the consequences of the negative impact of waste accumulated as a result of the activities of JSC” Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill “”. The conclusion also says about the substantial underfunding of measures to protect specially protected natural areas. In addition, Mr. Kobylkin draws attention to the “need for full financial support” of all federal laws in the forestry adopted in the spring of 2021.
Finally, the former Minister of Labor, head of the Committee for economic policy Maxim Topilin came to the conclusion that “the achievement of the forecast indicators laid down in the formation of the federal budget” is “a very difficult, non-trivial task, which, in principle, cannot be solved while maintaining the traditional policy of curtailing fiscal stimulus measures while further tightening the already excessively tight monetary -credit policy “. Although, for example, the ex-deputy defense minister and the new head of the profile committee, Andrei Kartapolov, previously called the project “the best defense budget in modern Russia.”
Committees, as a rule, recommend approving government bills, but in committees with strong opposition and in such influential committees as the budgetary one, the recommendation to “approve” is often combined with listing the key areas for further improvement, explains political analyst Alexander Pozhalov. On this basis, committees, already discussing amendments for the second reading, can press ministries to implement these recommendations – but sometimes there are special cases when a committee, under pressure from the government, changes its point of view.
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