Finance Ministry might use up to 3 trln rubles of Reserve Fund in 2015 - Siluanov
MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The Russian Finance Ministry sees the possibility of using up to 3 trillion rubles from the Reserve Fund in 2015, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on the air of TV channel Russia-24 on Friday.
"We have said that revenues this year would fall by 2.7 trillion rubles according to our estimates, which is why we see the possibility of using around 3 trillion rubles of the Reserve Fund this year. This proposal will be sent to parliament," he said.
The law on the 2015 federal budget allows for up to 500 billion rubles of the Reserve Fund to be spent covering lost revenues. Siluanov said in December that this amount would probably not be enough.
"The government is preparing amendments to the budget law connected with a change in the macroeconomic forecast and revenue estimates. Because of this we are going to ask Duma deputies to increase this limit," Siluanov said on Friday.
He added that it was now crucial to more efficiently spend budgetary funds. "The first month of this year shows that many budget recipients are trying to get money from the budgetary system as fast as possible. It's partially going into the banking system and being deposited at banks. In our opinion, this is not right because these are state funds. This year's tasks include comparing spending plans among the ministries and agencies and rigidly sticking to these plans," Siluanov added.
