Putin signs papers to introduce 2011-2013 budgets to Duma
MOSCOW. Sept 30 (Interfax) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed the paperwork needed to introduce the draft 2010 and 2012-2013 budgets to the State Duma.
"I have signed today all the documents needed to introduce the draft budget for 2011 and for the two years that follow to the State Duma," Putin said at today's government meeting.
Putin said a major phase in budgeting had now been rounded off, but there was more work to do. "We must, in dialog with the Duma, with our leading party United Russia and with other political parties prove that the priorities that the government has earmarked really are the most important aspects of the country's socioeconomic development," he said.
The budget contains funds to raise pensions, maternity and other benefits, wages for servicemen and public sector wages, and to continue to implement housing programs and fulfill other state obligations to the nation, Putin said.
"But I stress in particular that the new budget launches two fundamentally new programs - modernizing health care in Russia's regions and stepping up road construction using highway fund mechanisms," he said.