The State Duma on Wednesday approved the 2010 budget in a key second reading after plowing through hundreds of minor amendments and brushing aside proposals from the opposition.
The approved amendments, overwhelmingly sponsored by the Cabinet, largely shuffled around amounts earmarked for various budget items — without changing the overall spending of 9.89 trillion rubles ($345 billion).
In some of the major changes, lawmakers voted for cuts on planned state support for banks. The government is now planning to issue up to 100 billion rubles ($3.5 billion) worth of treasury bonds, if needed, to exchange for banks’ preferred shares. The measure, which previously called for 250 billion rubles of bonds, would allow lenders to use the bonds as collateral to draw money from the Central Bank.
The item “state support of Russian credit organizations” also went down to 102 billion rubles from 252 billion rubles. The amendment did not specify what form the support would take.
The spending changes also included adding 10 billion rubles for construction and maintenance of federal roads, 765 million rubles for a Victory Day parade on Red Square and subtracting 62 billion rubles from “general government spending.”
In another modification, the Duma backed an allocation of 1.1 billion rubles to protect Russian shipping companies from pirates.
None of the amendments drafted for the second reading appeared to relate to the state-of-the-nation address that President Dmitry Medvedev delivered last week. This marked a change from previous years, when the Cabinet would use then-President Vladimir Putin’s address as a guideline for drafting the budget.
The pro-government United Russia faction turned a deaf ear to suggestions from the Communists and other opposition factions, invariably voting them down as the body reviewed amendment after amendment.
In one example, Communist Deputy Vladimir Kashin defended the faction’s amendment to transfer 56 billion rubles of national security funding to spending on social needs, saying there was no reason for security spending to grow.
In response, Duma Budget and Taxes Committee Chairman Yury Vasilyev, a member of United Russia, said the move would undermine the amendment to increase security spending by 2.8 billion rubles that the chamber had just backed.
After the measure was voted down, Kashin resignedly went on with his list of proposals, which were equally unsuccessful.
The government plans a deficit of 2.94 trillion rubles, or 6.8 percent of gross domestic product next year, but there’s a chance that the figure will be smaller. The budget is based on a price of $58 for Urals oil, Russia’s main crude blend, which traded close to $80 per barrel Wednesday.
The Cabinet has said the budget’s priority will be to raise pensions 46 percent and fund high-tech industries.
The budget’s third and final reading is scheduled for Nov. 20.