MinFin to reduce 2015 budget spending by NRET shortfall
MOSCOW. Sept 21 (Interfax) - The Russian Finance Ministry plans to reduce planned budget spending in 2015 due to a slower-than-anticipated rise in the natural resource extraction tax (NRET) for gas, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters.
"We'll adjust things a little because that is where we'll have the biggest drop [in proposed gas NRET revenue]," he said.
The drop concerns contingent spending, which is 5.4% of overall budget spending in 2015 and which will be reduced by the shortfall that can be expected by not raising the gas tax rate as much as was stipulated by the government in May, Siluanov said. "We'll reduce contingent spending by that amount, by 0.4% of all spending, which will be equivalent to the lower forecast for gas NRET returns," he said.
The Finance Ministry on September 20 published new amendments to the Tax Code that envisage far lower BRET rates for gas than were originally proposed.