Commissioner for the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs and adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin Boris Titov in the RBC column stated that it was important not the amount of budget investments, but what exactly was spent money. According to him, the spending of budget funds during a pandemic looks like a “holey solido”.
Business Ombudsman recalled that last year the state had to spend a record amount of a record amount – 42.12 trillion rubles, which is 39.5 percent of GDP. At the same time, he noted that the volume of investments is not the only parameter to judge the success of the strategy, it is important to also take into account what funds are spent.
“In our case, all this resembles a” closed circuit “. The main source of income is the export of energy. The main direction of expenses is the support of the population, about 50 percent of which is employed in the budget system. In a word, with nominal growth and individual expenditures” “All these funds are” adding “inside the budget system and are aimed at maintaining it. Is this a basis for development? Unfortunately, no. This is the base for” conservation “situations,” Titov believes.
In his opinion, the growth of budget expenditures to stimulate production in Russia is insufficient, and the country imports much of what can be carried out independently. “Of course, if you proceed from the logic” I don’t wear water in a hole, “the state money must be protected, so as not to leaken. But to put up with a holey breathe, and it is impossible to consider it the only hope”, “said Titov and proposed two ways to solve the problem. First of all, he suggested tightening control over government finance managers, however, according to him, in such an approach weakly believed. The second way to correct the situation and “Ploat Decade” is to stimulate new sources of growth, make a bet on private production and business.
Titov also proposed to reduce taxes, subsidize rates on investment loans and reduce gas tariffs. “Yes, the expenditures of the state budget are now great. But” roll back “them back to a decrease is not time,” he concluded.