Finance Ministry may use right to 1.5 trillion rubles in additional spending in 2024 not wholly thanks to growth in receipts

MOSCOW. Oct 21 (Interfax) - The right to increase total budget spending in 2024 by up to 1.5 trillion rubles without amending the law regarding this year's budget may be exercised not wholly thanks to the growth in receipts, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

The government receives this right under a Budget Code amendment approved on first reading in the State Duma earlier this week. The bill was introduced in parliament as part of a budget package.

"It is not a fact that we would take all of the 1.5 trillion rubles. We shall see how the situation evolves," Siluanov said in an interview with RBC on the sidelines of the Moscow Financial Forum on Saturday.

"We have now, we are seeing revenues coming in above the plan. We might fill part of spending with the additional tax receipts," he said.

The minister also clarified the recently approved relaxation of the rules for repatriation and sale of big exporters' earnings. It does not apply to the foreign currency received under foreign-trade contracts, he said.

A government edict issued last week reduces the minimum rate of export earnings, regardless of the currency, under each export contract, which must be sold within 30 days from the date of receipt, from 50% to 25%. The basic parameters remain unchanged: big Russian exporters must put into their Russian bank accounts at least 40% of all foreign currency received under the terms of their export contracts (initially, the rate was twice as high, at 80%; it was reduced to 40% in two goes in the summer of this year) within 60 days from receipt of the funds, and to sell 90% of a repatriated sum within two weeks.

"This easing was done in regard to the recovery of earnings in rubles. If you look what the situation is like to day in regard to the recovery earnings in foreign currency, exporters must return 40% in foreign currency and sell 90%, i.e. they must sell 36% of foreign-currency earnings. In rubles, this figure was 50% until very recently. Clear injustice. So, to balance this out, we even made the working conditions for our exporters somewhat more favorable in rubles by lowering the volume of sale to 25%," Siluanov said.