Budget after quarantine: what and on whom will the regions save in 2021

Daria Voznesenskaya

Whether or not to save on civil servants is the question

Some regions of Russia also consider it necessary to save money on civil servants. Thus, the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Rostov Region, Yevgeny Fedyaev, recalled that the government has a minister for the fight against corruption, “who in fact is the governor's guard, but, apparently, receives a ministerial salary”, - writes RostovGazeta.ru.

“The main economy that the authorities of the Rostov region could direct to the needs of the budget is to reduce their corruption appetites. Let me remind you that the Rostov region ranks second in the country in terms of the level of corruption crimes per capita, ”the deputy noted.

The Ministry of Finance of Udmurtia calls the coming year the year of "austerity", Udm-info reports. One of the planned measures to reduce budget expenditures is the refusal to index the wages of state and municipal employees.

The Prime Minister of Bashkiria, Andrey Nazarov, also calls one of the tasks by 2024 to reduce the number of the state apparatus by at least 25%. But, according to economist Rustem Shayakhmetov, the reduction of employees in state structures will not greatly help the budget. “Our problem is that the top officials of departments often receive very good large salaries, and the lower the person in position, the less he gets. Nevertheless, the main working efficiency is provided by the middle link of the state apparatus. If the number of employees is reduced there, efficiency could be severely affected, ”he told Mkset.ru.

In Tatarstan, where over 30 billion rubles were lost during the pandemic, they also wanted to save on civil servants' salaries. But later the money for indexation was found. One of the solutions to reduce spending from the budget, the government of the republic has chosen to cut funding for the "Implementation of anti-corruption policy" program, calculated until 2023. In addition, according to Inkazan, in order to replenish the budget, State Councilors passed a law according to which 100% of administrative fines for environmental violations must remain in local budgets.

While in some constituent entities of Russia they are just thinking, they have already begun to operate in the Orenburg region. In the decree of the regional government, it is prescribed to reduce the cost of wages of employees of state authorities by 5%. It is also prohibited to increase the number of staff in ministries and departments. In addition, all tenders at which it was planned to purchase goods and services not included in the list of priority needs have been canceled, 56orb.ru reports.

In the Belgorod region, on the contrary, they do not plan to save on officials. According to the order of the head of the region Yevgeny Savchenko of September 17, new positions appeared in the government staff: the head of the regional governor's administration with a salary of over 26 thousand rubles and the first deputy of the administration with a salary of almost 90 thousand rubles. Note that during the pandemic, the Belgorod Region lost about 15 billion rubles. According to Bel.ru, they decided to save on construction and reconstruction, overhaul, road facilities, as well as on business trips of officials, the number of which has significantly decreased in the context of the pandemic.

In the Volgograd region, they also categorically do not want to save on civil servants. The city administration already complains that for at least three years there has been no salary indexation. However, serious changes have already taken place in the regional budget of 2020: financing of the transport system has been cut by almost 250 million rubles, according to an article by Novosti Volgograd.

The Karelian political scientist Anatoly Tsygankov believes that the number of administrative staff should be reduced due to the transition to the digital economy. In his opinion, the reduction of the administrative staff will soon become inevitable. At the same time, the main source of income for the budget of any region is not a reduction in budget expenditures, but their replenishment. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the burden on business, the expert noted in a conversation with Karelinform.

What else can you save on?

In the Tyumen region, where one of the biggest "holes" in the budget - about 40 billion rubles - has formed, in addition to saving on benefits, officials consider it necessary to cut spending on the repair of state institutions and cut spending on media and PR. “The most costly budget expenditure is capital construction. So far, they said to freeze the entire construction and planning, which has not been developed”, - Gleb Trubin, the head of the LDPR faction in the Tyumen Regional Duma, told NashGorod.ru.

At the same time, Arkady Lieberman, a member of the Public Chamber of the Tyumen Region, believes that "good play" is also inherent in the protocol aspects - various gifts and internal concerts.

In all regions, experts agree that next year the authorities will definitely not save on national projects, especially on those that are in sight. At the same time, the interlocutors also believe that it is not worth cutting spending on the social sphere. However, some regions admit with regret that it too may come under attack.

“Firstly, we will not approach the indexation of pensions for working pensioners, as we had planned and hoped. Secondly, I think some areas related to education will be cut. Thirdly, the budget for some areas of culture will be cut”, - says Sergey Kosinov, the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Rostov Region.

In his opinion, it would be worthwhile to radically reduce the tax burden on small and medium-sized businesses in the country. “And we are increasing VAT and giving preferences to oil exporters - we are removing the tax on oil exports abroad. We do everything to make them earn as much as possible. But they do not earn money for the country's economy”, - the deputy was outraged.

Mikhail Boyarkin, chairman of the Nizhny Tagil branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, believes that spending on sports and education will be cut in the Sverdlovsk region. At the same time, it is possible to increase spending on medicine and holding international events and exhibitions, writes TagilCity.ru .

Pavel Mrvalevich, co-chairman of the Stavropol branch of Opora Rossii, says that expenses for holding festive events can be cut in the region - the days of the city and the region may suffer in the first place. However, in Staropolye, they still hope that the budget will remain socially oriented. Cost cuts can be expected for programs to support construction and industrial enterprises, Chairman of the Stavropol Territory Parliamentary Committee on Budget, Taxes and Financial and Credit Policy Yuri Bely told NewsTracker.

In Primorye, where the budget has "lost weight" by 10 billion rubles, they also promise that social guarantees will not undergo changes. “But you will have to work seriously with other items of expenditure. Perhaps we will have to go the way of the Ministry of Finance, cutting spending on unprotected budget items, there is no other way out”, - VostokMedia quotes the words of the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Primorye Gennady Lazarev.

A socially oriented budget for the next year is also promised in the Omsk region. According to economist Oleg Roy , culture and education can move. At the same time, the deputy of the regional Legislative Assembly Pavel Korennoy assured Gorod55 that the budget is being implemented as planned.

“In this difficult period, I would sacrifice the improvement of public spaces. Yes, it is pleasing to the eye when new squares and small architectural forms are born. For example, this year the city administration repaired and, in fact, rebuilt the park near the Smolensk Cathedral. Was this an urgent need? I think not. The square was quite well-groomed, now it is simply made in a different style”, - says Yekaterina Klopovskaya, the deputy of the Belgorod City Council.

“In fact, all items of expenditure will be critically analyzed in terms of where you can cut spending. Unfortunately, I think that the optimization will affect a lot of things", - said NewsNN Chairman of the Budget Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region Committee and taxes, Alexander Sharonov. In this region, the government promises that the optimization of costs will not affect the social sector and national projects.

“Next year's revenues depend on how the situation in the economy will develop, whether there will be a second wave of the virus, and at what speed the recovery processes will proceed in different sectors of the economy. Economists give different forecasts for the sectors of the economy. In general, it is noted that Russia is going through this crisis quite well. This is due to the fact that, in comparison with developed economies, the service sector in our country has a smaller share in the economy. Namely, he suffered a lot. We have a large share in the real sector. Therefore, there is hope that our decline will not be as big as in other countries”, - Sharonov concluded.