Summing up the discussions, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov urged his Cabinet to concentrate on finalizing the draft budget to submit it to the lower house of Russia's parliament before April 30.
"We should work more intensively than in the past three months," Fradkov said.
The premier said that work on a three-year budget was new for the government, and that it would necessitate changes to the budget code.
He said a new budget-forming ideology was being developed, which envisaged a so-called non-oil-and-gas budget. The government should toughen control of budget spending and "place itself in a model that will force us to diversify the economy," Fradkov said.
Under a draft budget for 2008-2010, revenues should be 6.673 trillion rubles ($256 billion), or 19.1% of GDP, and expenditure 6.5 trillion rubles ($256 billion), or 18.6% of GDP, in 2008.
Interest revenues are forecast at 188.5 billion rubles ($7.24 billion), or 0.5% of GDP, and non-interest revenues should be 6.312 trillion ($242 billion), or 18.1% of GDP. Therefore, the 2008 budget surplus could reach 173.2 billion ($6.6 billion), or 0.5% of GDP, compared with a surplus of 7.5% of GDP in 2006.
In 2009, budget revenues are expected to total 7.421 trillion rubles ($285 billion), or 18.8 of GDP, and expenditure 7.362 trillion rubles ($283 billion), or 18.6% of GDP.
Interest revenues could reach 213.1 billion rubles ($8.2 billion), or 0.5% of GDP, and non-interest revenues 6.965 trillion ($267.6 billion), or 17.6% of GDP.
That year will see the so-called conventionally approved expenditure of 184 billion rubles ($7 billion), or 0.5% of GDP. This will include undistributed expenditure reserved for programs that require excessive funds, like wage indexation. The 2009 budget surplus is forecast at 59.3 billion rubles ($2.3 billion), or 0.2% of GDP.
The 2010 budget surplus is expected to fall to 36.5 billion rubles ($1.4 billion), or 0.1% of GDP, with revenues standing at 8.035 trillion rubles ($309 billion), or 18.1% of GDP, and expenditure of 7.999 trillion rubles ($307 billion), or 18% of GDP.
Interest revenues should be 247.2 billion ($9.5 billion), or 0.6% of GDP, and non-interest revenues should amount to 7.351 trillion ($282.4 billion), or 16.5% of GDP. The conventionally approved expenditure is forecast at 399.9 billion ($15.36 billion), or 0.9% of GDP.
