PRESS: Russian govt mulls cutting ‘16 budget spending more than 10%

MOSCOW, Jan 22 (PRIME) -- The Russian government is discussing reducing the budget spending by more than 10%, as officials agreed upon earlier, in 2016, business daily Vedomosti reported Friday, citing three federal government officials.

An official of the government’s financial and economic block said that if low oil prices remain for a long time, a 10% reduction in spending will be not enough. Another official said that some state entities can reduce the spending by much more than 10% by cutting jobs and raising efficiency.

Deputy Economic Development Minister Yevgeny Yelin said that since it is uneasy to reduce salary and electric power payments, the main budgetary cuts will fall for capital expenditures.

“There has been a verbal order, we will be inventorying the investment spending. Firstly, they will check the facilities for which the documentation was not ready at the moment of inclusion into the budget; perhaps they did not pass the expert appraisal. Many such facilities are in Crimea where there are troubles with land surveys. Research and development spending can be revised,” Yelin said.

An official of the Finance Ministry said that it is still negotiating spending reduction by 10% with the other ministries. He declined to comment on any deeper budgetary cuts.

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