Putin orders govt to use more fuel excise money for regional roads

MOSCOW, Jun 22 (PRIME) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday to allocate more revenue from fuel excises for reconstruction of regional roads.

Russia used to send 100% of the fuel excise revenue to regions before 2016 so they rebuild old roads. But in 2016, the federal budget withdrew 12%, in 2017, it plans to take 38.3%, in 2018 – 42.6% and in 2019 – 39.8%.

Putin said, “Dmitry Anatolyevich (Medvedev), I am asking you to work on this issue with your colleagues. I am not going to define now, how much, but we absolutely need to redistribute part of the money we have taken from the excises in favor of the regions.”

He said that the issue must not be postponed till 2019 in order to prevent a large-scale deterioration of the road system.

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