Article 5.50. Violation of the rules for transferring funds contributed to the election fund, referendum fund Failure to return to the donor within the period established by the legislation on elections and referendums donations (parts thereof) transferred to the election fund, referendum fund with

The reserve fund is a hole in the economy (Interview with V.V. Gerashchenko for Moscow News)

The reserve fund is a hole in the economy (Interview with V.V. Gerashchenko for Moscow News) - How do you assess the events that are currently happening in world markets, in particular the European crisis? - I’m still in my first year at the institute, maybe not paying attention, but I read

One of the financial instruments that the Russian Government uses to implement its powers is budget reserve funds. The Government of the Russian Federation has two such funds: the Reserve Fund of the Government of the Russian Federation and the Reserve Fund of the Government of the Russian Federation for the Prevention of Elimination of Emergency Situations and the Consequences of Natural Disasters. Their creation is provided for in Art. 81 of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation of July 31, 1998 N 145-FZ (hereinafter referred to as the Budget Code of the Russian Federation). This article is devoted to the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation.
This fund is created in the expenditure part of the federal budget; its size cannot exceed 3 percent of the total expenditures approved by the federal law on the federal budget for the corresponding year (Part 3 of Article 81 of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation). Thus, even if the federal budget has a deficit, i.e. budget expenditures exceed its revenues, or, for example, are sequestered, i.e. If there is a proportional reduction in its expenditure part, then this will not affect the size of the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation in any way, and it will remain unchanged. One should fully agree with this approach. The government must have a guaranteed amount of budgetary funds to cover unforeseen expenses. What will be the volume of funds accumulated in the fund is decided at the stage of developing the draft federal law on the federal budget for the next financial year. An appeal to the budget laws adopted in recent years allows us to say that these amounts usually do not exceed one billion rubles. Thus, in the Federal Law of December 14, 2015 N 359-FZ “On the Federal Budget for 2016”, the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation is defined in the amount of 836,000.0 thousand rubles. For comparison: in 2011 the corresponding figure was 1,000,000.0 thousand rubles, in 2012 - 1,000,000.0 thousand rubles, in 2013 - 1,000,000.0 thousand rubles, in 2014 - 950,000.0 thousand rubles, in 2015 - 855,000.0 thousand rubles. As you can see, depending on the year, the amount of the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation practically does not change and fluctuates within one billion rubles. If we talk about the location of data on the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation in the structure of the federal budget, then in the budget for 2016 they are in Appendix 10 “Distribution of budget allocations by sections, subsections, target items (state programs of the Russian Federation and non-program areas of activity), groups types of expenses classification of federal budget expenditures for 2016", in the section "National Issues" subsection "Reserve Funds" target article "Reserve Fund of the Government of the Russian Federation" (other budgetary allocations). In the federal laws on the federal budget for 2012 and 2013, the target item was called slightly differently: “Reserve Fund of the Government of the Russian Federation” (reserve funds).
Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated April 15, 2014 N 320 approved the State program "Public Finance Management and Regulation of Financial Markets", within the framework of which subprogram 2 "Regulatory and methodological support and organization of the budget process" is being implemented. Among its tasks, in particular, is the creation of reserves for the fulfillment of expenditure obligations of the Russian Federation, ensuring the stable functioning of the reserve funds of the President of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation. The formulation of such a problem is surprising, because The reserve fund is called a reserve fund because the funds accumulated in it themselves act as a guarantee of repayment of unforeseen expenses and there is simply no need to ensure the “stable functioning of reserve funds.”
Funds from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation are used to finance unforeseen expenses, including federal events not provided for in the federal budget for the corresponding financial year. Indeed, when preparing the federal budget, it is impossible to predict all possible expenses that may arise. As you know, all funds included in the federal budget are strictly tied to specific items of its expenditure. As a rule, the Government of the Russian Federation cannot redistribute them within the budget on its own. This is the prerogative of the legislator, who can introduce, albeit at the initiative of the same Government, changes to the law on the federal budget. Therefore, the Government of the Russian Federation, which exercises executive power, must have a certain freedom of action in cases where the socio-economic and sometimes political situation in the country and in the world as a whole requires it. Without sufficient financial security, such freedom is obviously impossible to ensure. That is why a reserve fund is created. These are funds that the Russian Government can spend freely. The procedure for using budgetary allocations from the reserve fund is determined by the Government of the Russian Federation (Part 6, Article 81 of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation), which, by Resolution No. 838 of July 8, 1997, approved the corresponding Regulations. As you can see, this Regulation was adopted before the entry into force of the RF BC and has never been changed since then. According to clause 3 of the Regulations, the funds of the reserve fund are spent on financing: state support for public associations and organizations; production of state awards, anniversary medals; holding meetings, symposiums, exhibitions and seminars at the highest level on issues of national importance; payment of one-time bonuses and provision of one-time financial assistance to citizens for services to the state; publication of collections of normative acts and legislation of the Russian Federation; carrying out repair and restoration work at the request of government authorities of the Russian Federation; other events carried out according to decisions of the President of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation.
The key here, I think, is the last of the above areas, which allows the Government, at its discretion, to spend the funds of its reserve fund for virtually any purpose.
In addition, I would like to specifically point out that the provision of subsidies from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation is not subject to the general Rules for the formation, provision and distribution of subsidies from the federal budget to the budgets of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of September 30, 2014 N 999. Let us recall that, in accordance with clause 2 of these Rules, subsidies are provided for the purpose of providing financial support for the fulfillment of budgetary obligations arising when government bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation exercise powers on subjects of jurisdiction of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and subjects of joint jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and expenditure obligations on implementation by local government bodies on issues of local importance. Thus, appropriations from the reserve fund are a special type of subsidy, the provision of which is not linked to the fulfillment by their recipients of any budgetary obligations.
Decisions of the Government of the Russian Federation on the allocation of appropriations from the reserve fund are made in cases where the funds at the disposal of the federal executive authorities and the executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation carrying out these activities are insufficient. The government makes relevant decisions independently and at its discretion. It is impossible to oblige the Government to make an appropriate decision. To make a positive or, conversely, negative decision, the decisive factor is the position of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, which prepares draft decisions on the allocation of funds from the reserve fund and endorses them, thereby de facto making this decision. Legally, the decision to allocate funds is formalized by issuing an order of the Government of the Russian Federation.
And here the question arises: which entity has the right to apply to the Government of the Russian Federation with an initiative to allocate funds from the reserve fund? The answer to this is mainly provided by clause 4 of the Regulations on the procedure for spending funds from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation. These are federal executive authorities and executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. They are the ones who submit documents to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation justifying the need for the requested funds, including financial estimates, as well as, if necessary, conclusions from interested ministries and departments. It seems that such a right should also be given to all state corporations (for example, Rosatom State Corporation, Roscosmos State Corporation, etc.), which, although in their organizational and legal form are non-profit organizations, at the same time combine the powers of the federal executive authority and at the same time the powers of an economic entity. So far, only one of them - the Deposit Insurance Agency - has the right to initiate consideration of the issue of allocating funds from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation. So, according to Part 2 of Art. 40 of the Federal Law of December 23, 2003 N 177-FZ "On insurance of deposits of individuals in banks of the Russian Federation" in the event of insufficiency of the Agency's property, financing of activities the implementation of which is entrusted to it by federal laws may be carried out at the proposal of the Agency's board of directors (the highest governing body of this state corporation. - Author) at the expense of the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation. As you can see, the formulation of the rule of law in this case is not imperative. Therefore, the Russian Government is not obligated to allocate funds from the reserve fund, even if it has received a corresponding proposal from the Agency’s board of directors. One should certainly agree with this approach, since only the Government, in accordance with clause a, part 1 of art. 114 of the Russian Constitution executes the federal budget both in terms of income and expenses.
What and to what extent are the funds from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation spent? An analysis of reports on the use of appropriations from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation allows us to obtain a comprehensive answer to these questions. According to Part 7 of Art. 81 of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, a report on the use of budgetary allocations from the reserve fund is attached to the quarterly and annual report on the execution of the federal budget. The report form is contained in Appendix 3 of Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated May 4, 2008 N 49n "On approval of forms of quarterly and annual budget reporting on the execution of the federal budget, the consolidated budget of the Russian Federation and the budgets of state extra-budgetary funds provided to the Government of the Russian Federation." The report is being prepared by the Federal Treasury. True, getting to know them is not so easy. The author of this article is trying to find them on the official websites of the Government of the Russian Federation (http://government.ru), the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation (http://www.mmfm.ru) or the Federal Treasury (http://www.roskazna.ru ) turned out to be ineffective, which causes some confusion. The required documents were found on the official website of the State Duma (http://www.duma.gov.ru) in the automated system for supporting legislative activities (ASZZD).
An analysis of the reports for 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2013 reveals some general trends. First of all, it should be noted that funds from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation were allocated mainly to federal executive authorities, and relatively rarely. In 2008, the Russian Government made relevant decisions twelve times (total amount of allocated funds 413,993,694.91 rubles), in 2011 - seven times (total amount of allocated funds 156,742,600.0 rubles), in 2012 - eight times (total amount of allocated funds 337,652,700.0 rubles), in 2013 - nine times (total amount of allocated funds 5,247,683,400.0 rubles).
With enviable regularity, funds from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation are allocated to the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation to finance expenses related to the celebration of the next anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War (2011 - 49,800,000.0 rubles; 2012 - 38,258,900.00 RUB; 2013 - RUB 38,258,900.00). Without questioning the need to adequately celebrate the anniversary of the Great Victory, it is nevertheless appropriate to ask the question: why should financing of these expenses, which are absolutely foreseeable and understandable, be carried out from year to year, including from the reserve fund of the Russian Government? Let us remember that the purpose of the reserve fund is to finance unforeseen expenses.
An analysis of the reports available to the author of this article on the use of appropriations from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation allows us to say that the financing of events related to certain, let us emphasize, well-known anniversaries in advance, is a common practice. Thus, in 2008 and 2013, funds were allocated from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation to support events dedicated to the 1020th and 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', respectively, and in 2012 - to financially support the costs associated with the production of 300 gift sets of medals "B" memory of the 200th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812." It is unlikely that such a practice should be considered correct and objectively justified.
There are many cases when funds from the reserve fund are allocated for major socially significant events both within the country and abroad. Thus, in 2008, 222,950,000.0 rubles were allocated. for financial support of events related to the Days of Russia in Latin American countries.
There are cases when funds from the reserve fund are allocated to provide financial assistance to citizens, and in isolated cases, to specific individuals personally. For example, in 2012, funds were allocated (30,100,000 rubles) to provide one-time financial assistance to individual employees of special purpose units at the rate of 100 thousand rubles per person, and in 2013 - 23,000,000 rubles. to provide one-time financial assistance to the families of sailors who died as a result of the sinking of the research vessel Amethyst in 2011, in the amount of 1 million rubles for each deceased.
Let us emphasize that the Russian Government is in fact not constrained by any rigid framework when deciding on the allocation of funds from its reserve fund. For example, by order of February 25, 2011 N 301-r, the Federal Medical and Biological Agency was allocated up to 7.4 million rubles from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation to pay for the final stages of treatment abroad for a certain citizen I.O. Skvortsova. One can only guess why she was lucky enough to receive such a large sum for obviously expensive treatment, and even abroad. True, by a strange coincidence, in the period from July 15, 2008 to May 22, 2012, the Deputy Minister of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation was the namesake of the said citizen - V.I. Skvortsova, who is currently the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation. It is obvious that in this case we are talking, in essence, about providing the same material assistance, albeit by allocating funds for treatment. The regulation on the procedure for spending the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation allows this, but it contains an important clause that financial assistance is provided for merit to the state. If citizen I.O. has any Skvortsova were, then this should have been specifically indicated in the government order on the allocation of funds. Since in this case we are talking about the management of federal budget funds, society has the right to know what and how these funds are spent. It seems that in order to ensure that in such situations, and judging by the content of the reports on the expenditure of the reserve fund, they are rare, no questions arise, it is necessary to post on the official website of the Government of the Russian Federation information for what specific services to the state this or that the citizen received financial assistance. The author of this article, from personal experience (which will be discussed below), knows well how difficult it is to achieve the allocation of funds from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation, even many times less than the same 7.4 million rubles allocated for the treatment of the same citizen I.O. . Skvortsova.
According to Part 7 of Art. 81 of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, a report on the use of funds from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation is attached to the quarterly and annual reports on the use of federal budget funds. With this approach, the picture of spending budget allocations is unlikely to be complete. It seems that the report on the allocation of appropriations should also be accompanied by a detailed summary report on their intended use. As you know, paragraph 2 of clause 4 of the Regulations on the procedure for spending funds from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation stipulates that the bodies at whose disposal the funds of the fund are allocated submit such a report to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation within a month after carrying out the relevant activities. The State program “Public Finance Management and Regulation of Financial Markets” was mentioned above. Within its framework, in particular, subprogram 3 “Ensuring openness and transparency of public finance management” is being implemented. This subprogram is aimed at increasing the information openness of the Russian Ministry of Finance and its subordinate executive authorities. It seems quite reasonable to raise the question of posting detailed reports on the intended use of budget allocations allocated from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation on the official website of the same Ministry of Finance of Russia during the implementation of the subprogram. We have to admit that these reports are currently completely unavailable. Neither the Russian Ministry of Finance nor the executive body itself that submitted the report there publishes them on their official websites.
In general, it should be noted that despite the above-mentioned shortcomings, the Government of the Russian Federation spends the reserve fund quite rationally, only when it is not possible to finance a solution to a particular problem in any other way, which should, of course, be agreed with. As a result, the funds of the reserve fund are not selected in full in the financial year due to the fact that there are no corresponding decisions of the Government of the Russian Federation, which means they remain in the budget and are considered unfulfilled assignments provided for by the consolidated budget schedule. This can be easily verified by comparing reports on the use of reserve fund allocations and the laws on the federal budget for the corresponding year, which set the limits on the size of these funds. Thus, in the federal budget for 2011, the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation was determined in the amount of 1,000,000.0 thousand rubles, and the cash execution for the allocation of funds according to the report for 2011 amounted to only 142,369,804.29 rubles.
Now I would like to show, using a concrete example, how procedurally the allocation of budgetary allocations from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation occurs. The author of this article had, I think, a rather rare opportunity for a legal scholar to get acquainted in practice with how funds are allocated from the reserve fund of the Russian Government, and even to take an active part in this, frankly speaking, difficult matter. Such experience, I think, is very important. The fact is that acquaintance with the well-known commentaries to the Book Code of the Russian Federation, published in recent years, allows us to make an unambiguous conclusion that those authors who tried to comment on Art. 81 of the RF BC, in the opinion of the author of this article, they clearly failed to cope with this task. Their “comments” were limited to only rewriting the norms of the same Article 81 and citing figures on the size of the reserve fund in the federal budget for the corresponding year (Comments to the Budget Code of the Russian Federation / Executive editor Doctor of Law, Professor Yu.A. Krokhina. M.: YURAYT , 2010. pp. 270 - 271), and even that is not always correct. It is unlikely that such “comments” are of any scientific value, much less useful in practice. In addition, even in them there are gross errors. So, Yu.V. Tyutin, commenting on Art. 81 of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, states that in the Budget Law for 2009 and for the planning period of 2010 and 2011. The standard value of the Reserve Fund is set at 5 trillion 147 billion rubles. (clause 4, part 1, article 1). The figures are given correctly, but the specified reserve fund has nothing to do with the reserve funds of the executive bodies of state power, which are discussed in Art. 81 of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, including, of course, the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation, alas, does not have it. The article of the same name is dedicated to him. 96.9 "Reserve Fund" of the Bank of the Russian Federation. It seems that the responsible editors of the comments, the same Professor Yu.A. Krokhina, she should be more attentive to her editorial responsibilities and not allow such gross mistakes on the part of any member of the team of authors. However, the authors of such comments to Art. 81 of the BC RF is difficult to judge strictly, because with a high degree of probability it can be assumed that all of them did not have the opportunity to personally decide in practice the issue of allocating funds from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation, and therefore have a vague idea of ​​how this happens, especially since in the current legislation there are essentially no corresponding norms . The more interesting and useful the author’s example given below will be.
In 2002, in the history of Russian statehood there was an important and significant date for the entire public administration system - the 200th anniversary of the formation of the ministries. As Yu.A. correctly noted. Tikhomirov, Alexander I and Speransky ushered in a new stage with their reforms - the State Council and ministries were established as bodies of sole centralized government. It is quite obvious that this event could not go unnoticed at the state level. Indeed, the country's political leadership decided to celebrate this significant date at the proper level. By Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated May 6, 2002 N 445 “On the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the formation of a unified system of executive authorities of Russia,” an organizing committee was formed to prepare and conduct events dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the formation of ministries in Russia, the chairman of which was approved by the head of the Russian Governments. Paragraph 3 of the Decree ordered the Government of the Russian Federation to approve the composition of the organizing committee, as well as to develop and approve a plan of organizational measures.
By Order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated May 20, 2008 N 731-r, the personal composition of the organizing committee was approved, the members of which included the then President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yu.S. Osipov and the then director of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician B.N. Topornin. It is therefore natural that academic science, represented by the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was initially actively involved in the preparation of the Plan of Main Activities to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the formation of ministries in Russia, and after the approval of this Plan by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated July 23, 2002 N 1004 -r - already in its implementation. The Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation was responsible for the preparation of the Plan, which turned to the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences with a request to provide proposals for inclusion in the Plan. On behalf of the then deputy director of the institute N.Yu. Khamaneva, the author of this article prepared and coordinated the relevant proposals, which were sent to the Russian Ministry of Labor. As a result, the Plan included two events with the participation of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences, namely: 1) holding a scientific and practical conference in Moscow “History and current state of the unified system of executive power in Russia” (dated September 2002) ; 2) preparation and publication of the monograph “Executive Power in Russia: History and Present, Problems and Development Prospects” (2003). However, inclusion in the Action Plan did not at all mean the automatic allocation of funds for the publication of the same monograph, and this issue seemed to be the key one.
One of the then deputy directors of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yu.L. Shulzhenko was very skeptical about the possibility of receiving budget funds for the publication of the monograph, since they were not immediately allocated, and considered this idea to be futile. On the contrary, the author of this article believed that there were chances for success and they were quite high, since this event was included in the Plan of Major Events to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the formation of ministries in Russia, approved by the Government, and, thus, the decision to publish the monograph was made, it just needs to be done. Of course, there was no illusion that this would be easy and simple. There was a certain and, as it later turned out, very significant work to be done, which stretched over the period from August 2002 to August 2003, i.e. took a total of one year. In general, there were two points of view. Which of them would prevail had to be tested and thereby once again confirm the truth of the well-known words: he who laughs last laughs best.
The first step was a referral to the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation - Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation A.L. Kudrin, an appeal from the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences (N 14202-26-2115.4 dated August 9, 2002) with a request to provide the data that needs to be reflected in the application for the allocation of funds necessary for the publication of the monograph. In a letter dated 09/03/2002 N 14-02-09, the Ministry of Finance of Russia advised that a cost estimate with the necessary calculations and justifications should be prepared and submitted to the ministry, agreed with all responsible executors provided for by the Plan of Major Activities to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the formation of ministries in Russia. These were the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, the State Statistics Committee of Russia and the Federal Archive. The author of this work had no experience in preparing such estimates, because I encountered this for the first time. Therefore, it was decided to send letters to a number of publishing houses that could publish the monograph in the future with a request to prepare an approximate cost estimate. The choice fell on the publishing houses "Legal Literature", "New Legal Culture" and a number of others, specializing in publishing literature on law. Based on the data received from publishing houses, an estimate of the costs of publishing the monograph was prepared. In addition, a team of authors was formed under the leadership of the Deputy Director of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Law, Professor N.Yu. Khamaneva. Now it was necessary to agree on the cost estimate with the co-executors, the three federal executive authorities. It was necessary to obtain the signatures of one deputy minister (Ministry of Economic Development of Russia), one deputy chairman of the state committee (Goskomstat of Russia) and one head of the service (Rosarkhiv), because Only on their signatures was it possible to put the official seals of the relevant departments. Appeals were sent to these managers, to which were attached a draft cost estimate for the publication of the monograph. During the approval process, which took about four months in total, from December 2002 to March 2003, the estimate was refined and supplemented. Finally, the draft estimate was agreed upon and by letter dated March 13, 2003 N 14202-26-2115.4, the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences sent it to the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation - Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation A.L. Kudrina. In addition, a separate appeal was sent to the government finance department of the Russian Ministry of Finance with a request to allocate additional funds to pay for the distribution of the monograph, which were not included in the cost estimate for its publication. The fact is that the monograph was planned to be sent to government agencies and legal educational institutions throughout Russia, to a total of 92 addresses. Much to the surprise of the author of this article, the Ministry of Finance of Russia, by letter dated 04/09/2003 N 14-02-09, considered it expedient to reduce the circulation of the monograph from the original 3000 copies to 2300 copies, and also, which was a particularly unpleasant surprise, proposed to additionally agree on the draft cost estimate also with the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Press, Television and Radio Broadcasting and Mass Communications (MPTR of Russia), which was not listed among the federal executive authorities - co-executors for the preparation and publication of the monograph. An attempt by the author of this article together with the Deputy Director of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the head of the team of authors for the preparation of the monograph N.Yu. Khamaneva, through negotiations during a visit to the Russian Ministry of Finance, to convince the department of the redundancy of additional approval of the draft estimate was unsuccessful. Head of the Department of Social Sphere and Science V.A. Shalaev was adamant. It became clear that Russia would still have to obtain approval from the MPTR, and the corresponding appeal was immediately sent to this ministry. It took about two more months to obtain approval and clarify the draft cost estimate. Its final version was sent by the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences in letter dated June 20, 2003 N 14202-26-2115.4 to the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation - Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation A.L. Kudrina. This option was accepted by the Ministry of Finance of Russia, which, in a letter dated 07/08/03 N 01-02-01/14-1933 to the Government of the Russian Federation, indicated that it considered it possible to allocate in 2003 from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation the Russian Academy of Sciences for the Institute of State and rights 310.0 thousand rubles. Attached to the letter was a draft order of the Government of the Russian Federation, endorsed by the then First Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation T.A. Golikova.
The specified letter from the Ministry of Finance of Russia in the apparatus of the Government of the Russian Federation was transferred for execution to the Department of Culture, Education and Science, with which the author of this article established working contact, prepared and sent a brief information on the substance of the issue to this department. Thanks to the operational work of the department, the issue of allocating funds from the reserve fund for the publication of the monograph was included in the agenda of the meeting of the Government of the Russian Federation on August 14, 2003, at which this decision was made. As a result, Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated August 18, 2003 N 1166-r was issued on the allocation of 310 thousand rubles from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation to the Russian Academy of Sciences for the Institute of State and Law in 2003.
In 2004, using these funds, the team of authors of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences prepared and published the monograph “Executive Power in Russia: History and Modernity, Problems and Prospects for Development,” and the author of this article, who became one of the co-authors of the book, also acquired, it appears to be invaluable practical experience in successfully resolving the very difficult issue of allocating funds from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation, as they say, “on the initiative from below.”
In conclusion, I would like to note the following. Currently, a draft of a new edition of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation is being developed, which should replace the current 1998 Budget Code of the Russian Federation. It seems that an article similar to Art. 81 of the current BC of the Russian Federation, should be detailed in the new code. Some suggestions about what needs to be done in this direction have been made in this article. The main thing is that the funds of the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation must be spent openly and publicly, of course, with the exception of those cases when it is necessary to ensure state secrets, since, albeit in rare cases, budgetary allocations from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation are carried out on the basis of government decisions classified as “secret”. In addition, it is necessary to make changes to the current Regulations on the procedure for spending the reserve fund. It should spell out in more detail the powers of the Russian Ministry of Finance when deciding on the allocation of funds from the fund, which would exclude the possibility of this department at its discretion to complicate the procedure for their allocation, for example, through the same additional approvals of the draft cost estimate, as mentioned above.

Bibliography

1. Borisov A.N. Commentary on the Budget Code of the Russian Federation. M.: YUSTITSINFORM, 2008. P. 195.
2. Commentary on the Budget Code of the Russian Federation / Executive editor Doctor of Law, Professor Yu.A. Krokhina. M.: YURAIT, 2010. P. 270.
3. Tikhomirov Yu.A. Administrative law at the turn of the century. Administrative law: theory and practice. Strengthening the state and the dynamics of socio-economic development. Materials of the scientific conference (Moscow, November 28, 2001) M., 2002. P. 4.
4. Executive power in Russia. History and modernity, problems and prospects for development / Executive editor Doctor of Law. Professor N.Yu. Khamaneva. M.: New Legal Culture, 2004. P. 23.
5. Sugarova I.V. Some features of the formation of the revenue component of the federal budget // Taxes and taxation. 2014. 9. pp. 810 - 820. DOI: 10.7256/1812-8688.2014.9.13177.
6. Sokolova E.D. Legal regulation of budgetary activities of the state and municipalities (theory and law-making) // Financial law and management. 2013. 2. pp. 119 - 135. DOI: 10.7256/2310-0508.2013.2.9868.
7. Lapina M.A. On the need to systematize measures of state coercion in the legislation of the Russian Federation // Financial law and management. 2015. 2. pp. 114 - 119. DOI: 10.7256/2310-0508.2015.2.15647.
8. Sugarova I.V. Some features of the formation of the revenue component of the federal budget // Taxes and taxation. 2014. 9. pp. 810 - 820. DOI: 10.7256/1812-8688.2014.9.13177.
9. Sokolova E.D. Legal regulation of budgetary activities of the state and municipalities (theory and law-making) // Financial law and management. 2013. 2. pp. 119 - 135. DOI: 10.7256/2310-0508.2013.2.9868.
10. Lapina M.A. On the need to systematize measures of state coercion in the legislation of the Russian Federation // Financial law and management. 2015. 2. pp. 114 - 119. DOI: 10.7256/2310-0508.2015.2.15647.

In 2018, the Russian Reserve Fund will cease to exist, as stated in the relevant law. These changes will make it possible to more efficiently use the accumulated reserves in the combined fund, officials emphasize. During the crisis, the Reserve Fund was the main source of covering the budget deficit, which led to a significant reduction in financial reserves.

The reserves of the Reserve Fund (RF) made it possible to smooth out economic shocks during the crisis. Against the backdrop of a sharp decline in budget revenues, the authorities are faced with a growing budget deficit. The accumulated reserves made it possible to finance government expenses, which led to significant losses for the Russian Federation.

The Reserve Fund was formed in 2008 from the Stabilization Fund. The main purpose of the fund is to ensure macroeconomic stability during periods of economic downturns. At the same time, the authorities used additional oil and gas revenues to form reserves, which was recorded in the existing budget rule.

At the beginning of February 2015, the reserves of the Russian Federation reached a record value - more than 5.8 trillion rubles. However, the economic crisis "ate up" most of the government's financial reserves. As a result, the Russian Federation’s funds in 2017 decreased to 1 trillion rubles. Experts believed that in the near future the Russian Reserve Fund would be completely exhausted. However, the stabilization of oil prices has reduced the burden on the Russian Federation. In addition, the authorities decided to reformat the principles of formation of reserves, which will affect the future fate of the Reserve Fund.

Budget innovations

Representatives of the State Duma adopted a new law that makes significant changes to the current budget rules. Lawmakers have set rules that will limit the amount of government spending. In addition, deputies supported the government's initiative to merge the Reserve Fund and the National Welfare Fund.

As part of the adopted innovations, budget expenditures will be tied to the basic level of energy prices and the forecast for the ruble exchange rate. Total expenditures of the state treasury cannot exceed basic oil and gas revenues. At the same time, officials set the oil price level, which will become a benchmark for calculating costs - $40 per barrel. Every year this indicator will be indexed by 2%, which corresponds to the expected trends in the oil market.

Changing the budget rule will preserve Russia's financial reserves, officials emphasize. This innovation will ensure stable replenishment of existing reserves, since the average price of “black gold” next year is expected to be $50-60 per barrel. In addition, the Russian economy will reduce its dependence on price fluctuations on the oil market.

Next year, a transitional rule will be in force, which allows budget expenditures to exceed basic oil and gas revenues by 1% of GDP. This provision will ensure a smooth transition to the use of new principles for calculating possible federal budget expenditures.

In 2018, the National Welfare Fund and the Russian Federation will merge, which will increase the efficiency of the formation and use of reserves (by February 1, the funds of the Reserve Fund will be transferred to the National Welfare Fund). As a result, financial reserves will be concentrated in one fund, the main purpose of which will remain the following:

• balancing the existing pension system;
• covering the budget deficit;
• co-financing of pension savings.

Financing of the budget deficit will come from the balances in the consolidated fund at the end of the year. The level of reserves that will ensure stable development of the domestic economy is 5% of GDP. If the fund's funds exceed this level, then the reserves will fully compensate for lost oil and gas revenues. Otherwise, the fund's expenses cannot exceed 1% of GDP. The Ministry of Finance will publish a monthly report that will help determine how much money remains in the consolidated Reserve Fund.

Experts characterize the proposed changes positively. However, to eliminate all risks for the Russian economy, more global reforms are needed.

On the way to sustainable growth

Changing the budget rule will reduce the level of cyclicality of the Russian economy, experts say. The approved innovations will make it possible to balance government spending during periods of high energy prices and accumulate the necessary reserves. The base level of oil prices is within $40/barrel. plus indexation will allow you to fill the fund with additional funds.

However, analysts do not rule out a deeper drawdown in the oil market next year. If OPEC participants resume growth in oil production, then quotes may drop below $40 per barrel. As a result, the authorities will be forced to devalue the ruble, which will stabilize budget revenues.

To reduce the dependence of the domestic economy on market fluctuations, it is necessary to create new growth factors, experts say. The basis of the economy should be the manufacturing industry, which will allow the production of high-tech products. In this case, the federal budget will not depend on price fluctuations in commodity markets.

In addition, the problem remains the imbalance of income and expenditure of the state treasury. Excessive social spending sets the stage for future deficits. The authorities need to reform the pension system, which will become the foundation of macroeconomic stability.

In 2017, the reserves of the Reserve Fund decreased to 1 trillion rubles. The government actively used financial reserves during the economic crisis, which made it possible to stabilize economic development. Next year, officials intend to change the budget rule, which will affect the formation of reserves.

The authorities plan to merge the National Welfare Fund and the Russian Federation, which will consolidate financial resources. Reserves will be formed from additional oil and gas revenues (at prices that exceed $40 per barrel plus indexation).

Experts believe that additional reforms are needed for macroeconomic stability.

Watch the video about when the reserve fund will end:

At the beginning of 2018, the Reserve Fund of the Russian Federation, which accumulated a significant part of oil and gas revenues, ceased to exist. Does this mean the depletion of the country’s reserves? What are the causes and consequences of the devastation and liquidation of the multibillion-dollar “pot”? How much money did the fund receive over ten years and where did it go?

Formation of the Reserve Fund

Its history began in February 2008, when the Stabilization Fund of the Russian Federation, operating since 2004, was divided into two new ones: the Reserve Fund and, or the National Welfare Fund.

The Reserve Fund funds represented that portion of treasury revenues from the export of oil, petroleum products, gas and condensate that exceeds the approved oil and gas transfer for the new financial year (now defined as 3.7% of the volume of GDP of the Russian Federation predicted by the authorities). If the normative value of the Reserve Fund was exceeded, the remaining income was credited to another national fund - the National Welfare Fund. The standard (maximum) value was initially defined as 10% of the Russian Federation's GDP forecast for the next financial year. Another source of funds, in addition to oil and gas revenues, was income from managing the fund's reserves.

The level of deductions of funds increased as the price of oil rose: from 2004 to 2006, income was transferred to the still unified Stabilization Fund when the price of a barrel exceeded $20, since 2006 - over $27 per barrel. According to the authorities, the existence of the Reserve Fund contributed to the fulfillment of the state's spending obligations and stabilization of the economy (covering the budget deficit), reducing its dependence on fluctuations in oil and gas revenues. The National Welfare Fund was planned primarily to balance the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation.

According to the amendments to the Budget Code adopted on September 30, 2010 (Law No. 245-FZ), from January 1, 2010 to January 1, 2015, the maximum value of the Reserve Fund was not established, and oil and gas revenues were sent to the federal budget to cover expenses. The fund was replenished after a 3-year break only in 2012. Also, from January 1, 2010, the Reserve Fund of the Russian Federation ceased to be replenished with income from the management of its funds - until February 2016, these incomes were sent to the federal treasury.

Management of the Reserve Fund

Management of the Reserve Fund of the Russian Federation was entrusted to the Ministry of Finance, but part of these powers could be delegated to the Central Bank. According to government decree No. 955 dated December 29, 2007, funds were to be managed for the purposes of:

1. ensuring their safety;

2. extracting stable income from the placement of reserves in the long term.

In the short term, it was possible to obtain negative financial results in the process of managing funds. The procedure established by the government required the placement of funds:

• in foreign currency;

• in assets denominated in foreign currency with a long-term credit rating of at least “Aa3” according to Moody’s classification;

• in assets denominated in foreign currency with not lower than “AA-” according to Fitch-Ratings and Standard & Poor’s.

The funds of the Reserve Fund were part of Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves, which were managed by the Ministry of Finance, and not the Central Bank. By order of the ministry, the currency structure of reserves was approved:

euro - 45%;

US dollar - 45%;

pound sterling - 10%.

The foreign currency was credited to accounts with the Bank of Russia, which paid interest equivalent to the return on the assets mentioned. Due to the high conservatism of investments (possibly caused by the severe crisis of 2008, which occurred just a few months after the start of the independent existence of the Reserve Fund), the return on investment was approximately at the level of currency inflation. A balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds would allow you to get many times more income.

Liquidation of the Reserve Fund of the Russian Federation

On February 1, 2018, the Reserve Fund of the Russian Federation ceased to exist, merging with the mentioned National Welfare Fund (Law No. 262-FZ dated July 29, 2017). Thus, the Reserve Fund existed for exactly 10 years, to the day.

On December 1, 2017, income from the funds of the fund in the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for the past year in the amount of 652 million rubles were transferred to the treasury, the balances of foreign currency from accounts with the Central Bank - $7.62 billion, €6.71 billion and £1.10 billion - were exchanged for 1.042 trillion rubles and used to cover the budget deficit. Let's look at the graph:

It shows a noticeable correlation between the volume of the reserve fund and the oil price. When oil fell sharply during the global crisis of 2008-09, this was reflected in the Reserve Fund with a slight delay. However, if from the beginning of 2009 oil began to restore its previous positions, the fund continued to actively decrease and by 2011 it had decreased by more than 6 times to $20 billion. And if it were not for the high price of oil at that time, its history could have been noticeably shorter. But thanks to prices at $115 per barrel, the fund was still able to grow 4 times, exceeding 80 billion. The second wave of oil decline since 2014, imposed by sanctions, turned out to be critical.

It is quite interesting that although the price of a barrel of oil in dollars looks quite chaotic, in rubles the situation is different: from the beginning of 1998 to the beginning of 2018, the cost of a barrel rose from 100 to 3,800 rubles, i.e. 38 times. At the same time, the ruble depreciated against the dollar by less than 10 times: from 6 to 56 rubles. As a result, the dynamics of the Reserve Fund in rubles looks somewhat different:

The two peaks correspond to the time of the ruble - and since the devaluation of the end of 2014 turned out to be stronger than the devaluation of 2009, the ruble capitalization of the fund turned out to be maximum at the beginning of 2015 (while there were noticeably more funds in dollars in 2009). Those. The initial phase of the crisis even led to an increase in ruble assets, but then a strong decline followed. By December 1, 2016, the fund had just over 2 trillion. rubles or approximately 35 billion dollars - but by the beginning of 2017 this amount had halved to 1 trillion. rubles ($17 billion). Which was spent at the end of 2017, reducing the fund’s balance to zero.

What's next?

Experts opposing the current Russian government blame it for irrational spending of reserves and argue that the liquidation of the Reserve Fund does not bode well for Russians.

Thus, Alexei Navalny said that Russia earned about $2 trillion from oil exports during the oil years, and a total of $177 billion had accumulated in two sovereign funds by 2014. Where did they go? In just four years, they were wasted on financing unprofitable corruption projects, security forces, subsidies to Crimea and propaganda. According to the oppositionist, with effective spending, there would still be another trillion rubles left in the Reserve Fund of the Russian Federation in 2017 alone.

Other analysts reasonably state that there is no reason to worry, since the abolished fund was by no means the only “pot”. It is noted that while the funds were being depleted, the total volume of gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Russian Federation, on the contrary, increased (in 2017 - by 14.6%, or $55 billion; in 2016 - by 2.5%, or $9 billion). The share of Western securities in them decreased and the share of gold increased.

So, in fact, the Reserve Fund today exists under the name of the National Welfare Fund of Russia. The volume of which as of January 1, 2018, according to official data from the Ministry of Finance, amounted to $65.15 billion, or 3.75 trillion rubles.

According to the authorities’ calculations, 2018 should be the last year when the budget deficit will be covered from the National Welfare Fund. In the future, they promise to turn it into a real welfare fund, which will be replenished with currency purchased by the Ministry of Finance according to the budget rule, and spent only on co-financing the pension savings of Russian citizens. Will it succeed?