Press Release, 27.11.2020

Photo: Deputies of the Pskov Regional Assembly in the first reading adopted the draft regional budget for 2021 and for the planning period of 2022 and 2023 / Photo by the Press Service of the Pskov region Administration

Pskov parliamentarians considered in the first reading the draft budget of the region for 2021. Lev Shlosberg, deputy of the Pskov Regional Assembly from Yabloko, noted the excessive dependence of the regional budget on the federal Russian budget, and also drew attention to a twofold decrease in the planned non-repayable receipts from the federal budget to the regional budget compared to the current year, the state debt of almost 19 billion roubles by 80 per cent comprised of loans from commercial banks, and the desire of the regional administration to overestimate the region’s own revenues in order to artificially lower the budget deficit figure.

At the 51st November session of the Pskov Regional Assembly, the deputies considered in the first reading the draft law of the Pskov region “On the regional budget for 2021 and for the planning period of 2022 and 2023”. The report was presented by the Governor of the Pskov Region Mikhail Vedernikov. After the speech of the head of the region, deputy of the Pskov Regional Assembly from Yabloko Lev Shlosberg asked him questions why the income tax is planned on the same level when expected regional budget revenues would be lower, and also asked about the servicing of the state debt and budget loans for the region.

According to Lev Shlosberg, the draft budget submitted to the regional Assembly showed the key dependence of the budget of the Pskov region on the budget of the Russian Federation and the structure of non-repayable receipts from the federal budget

The politician also emphasised the “stifling” role of excise taxes, which are taken into account in the basic profitability of the budget, make the Pskov region an illusory highly profitable subject of the Russian Federation and thus reduce subsidies from the federal budget.

“In my opinion, this draft budget demonstrates an artificially overestimated income part in order to minimise the budget deficit. It is quite obvious that the fate of this budget is mainly in the hands of the Russian government and the Ministry of Finance.

It should be noted that the efforts of the poorest Russian regions, not only the Pskov region, to change the federal interbudgetary policy at this moment remain fruitless. This policy of interbudgetary relations remains repressive in relation to the poorest regions and, instead of supporting these regions, creates conditions for the stagnation of budgetary policy, since it does not allow increasing the part of budget revenues that is associated with subsidies from the federal budget.

The Yabloko faction will abstain from voting on the considered draft budget of the Pskov region and will express its opinion after a repeated submitting of the draft budget in the first reading with revised figures and following the results of the work of the conciliatory commission in the second reading, ” the leader of the Pskov Yabloko concluded.

Five deputies of the regional parliament and five representatives of the executive branch will work on the draft regional budget according to the parameters of the second reading. The conciliatory commission included representatives of all parliamentary factions: Boris Polozov (United Russia), Anatoly Koposov (the Communist Party of the Russian Federation), Natalya Tudakova (A Just Russia), Anton Minakov (LDPR) and Lev Shlosberg (Yabloko).

The administration of the Pskov region will be represented by deputy governors Vera Emelyanova, Tatyana Barinova, Ninel Salagaeva and Vasily Osipov, as well as the head of the administration staff Sergei Dmitriyev. Valentina Ponizovskaya, Chairman of the Association of Municipal Formations of the Pskov Region, will take part in the work of the conciliatory commission with the right of an advisory vote.

The draft law of the Pskov region “On the regional budget for 2021 and for the planning period of 2022 and 2023” was adopted in the first reading: it was supported by 31 deputies (United Russia, and A Justr Russia factions), eight voted against (CPRF and LDPR) and two abstained (Artur Gaiduk and Lev Shlosberg from the Yabloko faction).

It should be noted that in October 2020, on the initiative of Lev Shlosberg, the deputies of the Pskov Regional Assembly appealed to the Government of the Russian Federation with a request to change the methodology for calculating interbudgetary transfers, which would allow the Pskov Region to receive additional subsidies from the federal budget on conditions feasible for the region.