In another statement, it reports today's routine conference of President Putin and Alexei Kudrin, federal Finance Minister.
Mr. Kudrin told the head of state about final brushstrokes, now made on next year's federal budget draft.
This country is shifting to new budgetary arrangements. The Cabinet must do all it can lest the reform have a bad impact on the Pension Fund, stressed President Putin.
That bad impact is ruled out, the minister reassured him in reply-he expects regional revenue increase to outpace the inflation.
The Cabinet intends to double a reserve fund that will support regions as they shift to the new budgetary patterns, added Mr. Kudrin.
On initial blueprints, his ministry earmarked a threshold 15 billion roubles, roughly US$500 million, for the fund. It deemed the sum sufficient for the needs of every region at the initial budget reform stage. Later on, however, Finance Ministry experts made a thorough analysis of federal revenue forecasts, so now the reserve fund is estimated at 30 billion roubles or more-quite enough to ensure steady economic progress of Russian regions.
The regions will certainly welcome the arrangement, expects the minister. The reform does not envisage a reappraisal of regional revenues, so they will be interested in making as much money as possible, he emphatically remarked.
The Cabinet is soon to offer its federal budget draft to the State Duma, parliament's lower house. August 26 has been fixed as a deadline, Alexei Kudrin went on.
Many reform resolutions concern federal and regional competence delineation, and guarantees of compliance with budget-earmarkedrevenues and expenditures in Russia's regions and constituent republics, and at the lower level of municipal entities. Budgets of the various levels must take into due consideration the ways to implement those resolutions. That is among the key budgetary reform issues, said the Finance Minister.
