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Most of the Yabloko faction will support the draft
budget for 2001. However, it will be a free vote.
The faction appreciates the government’s consideration
of many of Yabloko’s proposals for the budget-2000.
The faction supports the reduction in personal income
tax and the introduction of a regressive scale for
the social tax, the trend to curb external debts and
other proposals reflected in the budget-2001.
At the same time the deputies of the faction detected
from their study
of
the economic indices and budget parameters a possibility
to increase
considerably the revenue side of the budget through
different
non-inflationary sources and above all not through
a change in the oil
price. The total reaches 88 bln roubles.
The Yabloko faction proposed to finance with these
resources such
priority
goals for the country as consolidation of the country’s
defence
potential, a
launch of military reform, including the transfer
of the army to a contract-basis service, an increase
in allowances for
the
military, complete package of social benefits for
those discharged into
the
reserve, as well as qualitative improvements in education
and judicial
reform. In other words, additional funds will make
it possible to
transform
the budget into a tool of economic policy based on
the actual accounts.
According to Yabloko, the refusal of the government
to discuss the
sources
of the funds and variants of their expenditure demonstrates
yet again
that
the implementation of large-scale programmes in the
country depend on
the
President, rather than the Government. Consequently,
the faction did
not
call for a block vote for the budget.
The deputies of the faction support the constructive
provisions of the
budget, but at the same time refuse to tolerate a
situation where the
newly
discovered additional revenues will be torn apart
by Duma lobbyists.
Therefore, most of the Yabloko faction will support
the draft budget for
2001.
If the draft budget is adopted at its first reading,
the Yabloko faction
reserves the right to propose that the President
immediately start
implementing the provisions of military reform and
reconsider
opportunities
to exploit the additional revenues discovered in the
budget.
The faction believes that if the President plans
to oversee military reform, as he recently declared,
it will be not difficult for him to conduct negotiations
with the factions close to him.
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