"Our dry discussions of the budget prevent us from realising the serious economic and social meaning of making budget expenditures clear for every citizen," the vice premier said at a government session on Thursday.
"We should clearly explain [to the population] how and why every single rouble is spent so that every Russian could have a clear-cut idea where his tax payments are channelled," the vice premier said.
"The Russian federal draft budget consists of 5,000 pages, and nobody would ever be able to understand how taxes are spent," said the deputy prime minister.
"If we facilitate the budget process, then Duma debates would be more specific because each section would contain certain goals and tasks. This is extremely important and crucial for the budget process," said Mr. Zhukov.
"Not all the expenditures can be formalised of course, for example, in the fundamental science. But, either way, we will have to do it," said the deputy prime minister.
In his words, ideas and tasks should be clearly formulated not only at the federal but also at the regional level. "We should change people's attitude to the budget, taxes and the state functions," concluded the deputy prime minister.
