Russian budget faces 1 trillion rubles shortfall in 2014-2016 - MinFin's Nesterenko
MOSCOW. Oct 14 (Interfax) - The Russian federal budget could have a shortfall of around 1 trillion rubles in 2014-2016, according to estimates by the Federal Tax Service and Federal Customs Service, First Deputy Finance Minister Tatyana Nesterenko told reporters.
The Finance Ministry has a scenario for lower federal budget revenue collection in 2014-2016, she said.
"This scenario contains more conservative estimates for revenues, given by the administrators of those revenues - the tax and customs services. They have estimates that indicate revenues could be lower. This [shortfall] could be a trillion over three years, maybe less," Nesterenko said.
She said there were risks that privatization revenue would fall short in 2014-2016. "Ultimately, significant privatization volumes are also there [in the draft federal budget] - they have been reduced but they are lower. There are risks we might fall short [on privatization revenue," she said.
The Reserve Fund will be used to cover the budget deficit if there is a shortfall, she said. "We're checking how robust things are. Our Reserve Fund is 4.2% of GDP. The Reserve Fund will be big enough if privatization revenue is less than planned. There's enough for three years," Nesterenko said.
Nesterenko said at 2014-2016 budget hearings at the Public Chamber that the Finance Ministry had, in its lower budget revenue scenario, assessed the risk to the budget system. "There is a scenario for lower revenue that is worse than what is written into the budget. We're looking at how the budget system might react and whether w have enough reserves to support our existing commitments, and time to review them, reduce them, and change the law if needed," she said.