Agenda: Amendments to the draft federal budget for 2025-2027, expanding privileges and employment guarantees for special military operation veterans, decrease of mineral tax.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Mikhail Mishustin at a Government meeting
Government meeting
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov at a Government meeting
Mikhail Mishustin at a Government meeting
Excerpts from the transcript:
Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon, colleagues,
The government continues to work on the draft federal budget for the next three years. The bill, already approved by the State Duma in the first reading, is intended to accomplish a whole range of system-wide objectives, including promoting the development of the supply-side economy. The President mentioned this at the meeting on Monday. The Ministry of Finance, as well as other government agencies, has drafted amendments we will send for the second reading. They fall into several parts.
The first part is related to the allocation of federal funds already earmarked for fulfilling the President’s and the Government’s instructions. Additional resources are proposed to be allocated for education, research and agriculture, for social needs and technological development, as well as for assistance to our regions.
The second part of the amendments concerns national projects financing. Some adjustments are needed in accordance with the decisions taken at the respective strategic sessions and the approved structure of the national projects.
This will not affect the main parameters of the federal budget, the total revenues and expenditures. They will remain unchanged. There will be a further reduction in the non-oil and gas deficit and a return to the budget rule, which should have a restraining effect on inflation, as the President has emphasised.
In a few minutes, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov will speak in more detail about the proposed amendments to the draft federal budget.
The next item on our agenda is the expansion of privileges and employment guarantees for special military operation veterans.As the president stressed, special attention should be given to their career prospects in the interests of the country, not just in the Armed Forces but in civilian jobs.
We have already created an entire section in the current regulations in order to ensure their legitimate interests to the ful, and envisaged additional measures to support their family members. Based on the experience we gained, today we will consider amendments to the Labour Code in order to adjust earlier decisions.
Under the law, each participant in the special military operation retains his or her job, thus they can return to their official duties after the contract ends rather than waste time searching for new employment. However, this measure was only in effect for a year.
Now the employment contract will be suspended for the entire period of military service under the contract. The guarantees for their spouses are also extended.
We hope that the parliamentarians will adopt the changes we are proposing without delay. After all, all issues related to the protection of the rights of participants in the special military operation are considered by legislators as a priority.
Another topic is support for industry.
The president stressed the need to ensure the country’s resource sovereignty, form a stable base for uninterrupted supply of affordable raw materials and fuel to the national economy, our cities and towns, and create a foundation for the production of new materials and energy sources.
In order to do this, a law has been drafted that will allow for decreasing mineral extraction tax payments, above all, for producers of metals that are important for many high-tech industries and that form the foundation for unique coatings and products of electronics, electrical engineering, metallurgy, mechanical engineering and, of course, medicine and space industry. A single mineral tax rate of 6 percent will apply to such manufacturers.
The definition of tax base will become more transparent. Now it will depend on the share of these metals in concentrate and their prices on the global market. Thanks to the measures we are proposing, the manufacturers will have an additional quarter of a billion roubles per year at their disposal, which can be used to expand investment and develop, which is especially important now, when it is necessary to create new jobs.
Let’s get down to the discussion. Please, Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, report on the first issue.
Anton Siluanov: Mr Mishustin, colleagues,
The Ministry of Finance together with other ministries and agencies has prepared amendments for the second reading of the budget law for the next three years. It is proposed to introduce about 900 amendments with a total redistribution volume of about 7 trillion roubles. A significant part of the amendments is aimed at ensuring the defence and security of Russia, including the special military operation.
As you said, Mr Mishustin, the amendments can be divided into three groups. The first group includes amendments related to the adoption of national projects and the redistribution of resources reserved for them. In total, it is proposed to redistribute 1.8 trillion roubles in these amendments for the three-year period.
What are these national projects and what amendments?
First of all, this is the Family national project. It is suggested to allocate funding to equip and reequip perinatal centres and children’s hospitals with medical items. Thus, over 180 children’s hospitals and over 120 perinatal centres will have up-to-date medical equipment by 2030.
The second area of this national project is about allocating funding to provide long-term care for the elderly and people with disabilities. This would provide care for an additional 3,000 citizens by 2025.
The money for the Long and Active Life are redistributed for constructing, repairing, and equipping healthcare facilities, thus providing more high-quality medical services for our people.
Funding is also envisaged for measures to manage diabetes, primarily for the provision of medical products to patients with this disease, children and pregnant women.
The New Materials and Chemistry national project will have funding redistributed to create scientific and production infrastructure for institutions of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Kurchatov Institute. The money will be used to purchase materials and chemicals, create nine sites for pilot industrial production, scaling up the production of chemicals, and conduct additional R&D.
As for Tourism and Hospitality, money will be redistributed for the preferential lending programmes for hotels, which will increase the number of rooms by at least 59,000. Federal year-round resorts will be created. We will support the regions in order to increase tourist trips across the Russian Federation.
The funding under the Industrial Support of Transport Mobility national project will be used for a new innovative modular platform to produce cars.
The Infrastructure for Life national project is about the construction, renovation, and maintenance of auto-roads. It will ensure an increase in the share of federal roads in a standard condition of at least 85 percent.
The second set of amendments concern distribution of budget allocations, given the adopted regulations and reasons provided by our ministries and departments. There, the money will be redistributed for preferential lending in the agro-industrial complex to achieve the goals of the national project Technological Provision of Food Security. The money will also be used to increase the salaries of teachers of fundamental disciplines in universities and provide additional allocations for teachers in more than 50 universities.
Actions to support new regions, as well as Crimea and Sevastopol. Measures to develop the Far East and the Arctic. State border checkpoints: by 2030, we will complete this program, 87 priority checkpoints will be upgraded.
Third set of amendments. We will redistribute allocations under government programs and in non-program areas. What the money will be reallocated for: for the program of preferential lending, for the establishment of engineering development centers on the basis of universities and so on.
I want to dwell on the inter-budget transfer of funds to the regions. Next year we have planned almost 260 transfers in the total amount of 3.4 trillion roubles. By the second reading we will redistribute 98 percent of all inter-budget transfers. Nine transfers will be left to be distributed by the Government in course of the budget administration and this is related to the tendering procedures.
We have also proposed donations distribution to provide for fiscal equalization. It will let us reduce fiscal capacity differentiation among 10 most secure and 10 least secure regions from 5.5 to 2.7 times.
Subsidies are also being distributed to support regions in ensuring appropriate levels of labor remuneration of public sector employees. 62 regions will receive these funds.
And we will increase the amount of budget loans to regions for infrastructure in 2026–2027 to 250 billion roubles annually.
The Government's amendments also allocate funds for the implementation of individual programs of socio-economic development in 10 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
Mr Mishustin,
Colleagues,
We ask you to support the amendments prepared by the Government.
Mikhail Mishustin: Thank you, Mr Siluanov.
All these amendments are to adjust the draft budget.
It is important to enhance the focus on the most important issues to be advanced over the next three years.
And now, of course, we should submit promptly these proposals to the State Duma to have the opportunity to work on them in the specialized committees with the Duma deputies and so to prepare them for the second reading.
