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| Economy |
| Khotsenko proposed increasing subsidies to equalize regional budgets |
| 2023-10-04 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] Governor of the Omsk Region Vitaly Khotsenko took part in parliamentary hearings on the draft federal budget for 2024 and for the planning period 2025–2026. This is the so-called “zero reading” with the participation of regional leaders and experts. The draft federal budget will be presented by Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. In his speech, the head of the Omsk region focused on the issues of balancing regional budgets. He drew attention to the need to equalize the budgetary provision of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Khotsenko emphasized that when calculating the total volume of subsidies to equalize budgetary security for 2024, it is necessary to take into account the inflation that has developed over the past two years. In addition, the official proposed that in the methodology for calculating this subsidy, special conditions should be permanently fixed for those regions in which there is much less income than collected, and at the same time the level of budgetary security remains low. “There were seven such regions at the end of last year, including the Omsk region. Thus, the consolidated budget of the Omsk region in 2022 received 37.4% of the volume of taxes collected in the territory, while the average for Russia is 42.4% ,” Khotsenko said. The governor also drew attention to the problem of the annual increase in regional expenditures to achieve the wage level targets set by the federation for certain categories of public sector workers and increasing the level of the minimum wage. Since 2013, subsidies have been provided from the federal budget for partial compensation of these expenses, but over five years the total amount of subsidies provided for in the federal budget for these purposes has not changed, while the average accrued wages in the country as a whole for the same period, taking into account the assessment 2023 increased by 53%, and the minimum wage - by 44%. Siluanov confirmed Khotsenko’s words that in some regions there are disproportions between the level of income collected in the territory and the income remaining at the disposal of the region. The head of the Ministry of Finance added that in 2024, special conditions will apply to such regions, including the Omsk region, providing for the possibility of increasing equalization subsidies. Siluanov also emphasized that the subsidy to compensate for the costs of increasing wages will be distributed taking into account the real needs of the regions for funds. |
| Posted by:badanov |