The PMR President held a regular meeting dedicated to the draft budget for 2021. The Government initiated the discussion. Leaders of the presidential executive office and the relevant ministries, as well as deputies of the Supreme Council of the VI convocation, were invited to the conversation.
The main speaker during the meeting was the PMR Government Chairman. Alexander Martynov recalled that work on the draft budget for next year began in the summer. An interdepartmental working group was established in August. It includes representatives of the legislative and executive branches of Government, the Central Bank, and the customs committee. The main work was preceded by the formation of forecast of economic development, on the basis of which macroeconomic indicators are determined. An important aspect of the initial stage of the budget process is the definition of the structure of the law-in-draft. The original version of the document was consolidated and refined. Now it is in the Supreme Council. The current adjustments are being discussed together. A large package of parliamentary amendments was received the day before.
The peculiarity of the draft budget for 2021 is that during its development the Ministry of Finance applied a new approach: it took as a basis not the limits, but the actual need for directions. As a result, according to Alexander Martynov, a balanced calculation of income and expenses was obtained, indicating the sources of their coverage. The speaker outlined the main directions of government spending. He said that the authors intend to reserve 160 million rubles for increase in the size of pensions and salaries next year. The mechanism, size, timing are still being discussed. An important component of the expenditure side of the budget is the renewal of social infrastructure. The capital investment fund is planned in the amount of 208 million rubles, 160 million of which are proposed to be directed to repair and construction work. Priority is given to unfinished projects, healthcare facilities and those allocated by the heads of state administrations. An amount larger than in 2020 is to cover the inter-tariff difference for enterprises in the sphere of natural monopolies. There are funds for the support and development of agriculture (subsidies for the purchase of heifers, the development of reclamation complex, etc.), support for entrepreneurship (Business School and the "Buy Pridnestrovian!" Project), as well as youth and young families (loans for teachers, doctors, military personnel for the purchase of housing). The participants of the meeting discussed prospects for purchasing housing for orphans next year. It is planned, as in the current year, to buy approximately seventy apartments at the state expense. In addition, hundreds of millions of rubles are reserved for anti-coronavirus measures. It is proposed to continue financing the institution of state management company, which has proven its effectiveness. Discussion is the issue of the voter order fund. There is not this item of expenses in the author's version of the law-in-draft. The President supported the supporters of preserving this fund, noting that the deputies have not only legislative obligations, but those that they took upon themselves, communicating directly with citizens. The mechanism for allocating funds, amount, and direction of development are subject to discussion. The fund as such has confirmed in practice its importance and should be preserved, the President considers.
Today's discussion of the draft budget organized by the President in the format of video conference is one of the many working meetings dedicated to the main financial document of the next year. Vadim Krasnoselsky called this preliminary work a kind of zero reading of the law-in-draft. Noting the draft budget was formed extremely difficult circumstances, the President called on all participants in the budget process to consolidate, be attentive, and be able to listen and hear their interlocutors. The President considers that such an approach, based on scrupulousness and accuracy of decisions, will make it possible to adopt the most important law-in-draft in the optimal wording.
