The government's pocket is a quarter full

Three quarters of the government's reserve fund for 2018 has already been spent.
74.7% of the reserve fund of the government of the Russian Federation for this fiscal year was actually spent already in the first quarter - out of 210.7 billion rubles. decisions were made on the expenditure of 157.3 billion rubles. Half of the funds are allocated to the regions, the rest - to a variety of ongoing projects, from subsidies to greenhouse complexes to the "Russian Seasons in Italy". The new government will have no more than 53.4 billion rubles in reserve from May. Any actual emergency decision will require an actual revision of the budget.

As it became known to Kommersant, at one of the recent meetings in the government at the end of March, issues related, inter alia, to the official reserve of expenditures of the White House - the government's reserve fund were discussed. Recall that in the federal law on the budget for 2018-2020, the amount of this reserve fund (we recall that it has nothing to do with the Reserve Fund of the Russian Federation, which existed in the budget structure before the end of 2017 and is now merged with the National Welfare Fund, the NWF) were extremely small - this is 52.6 billion rubles. Usually the White House disposes of at least 100 billion rubles for a budget year. expenses reserved for urgent and urgent needs - decisions on the expenditure of this money are taken either by instructions of the Prime Minister or by decrees and orders of the government.

The president also has his own reserve fund in the budget, while according to the analyst of 2016-2017, according to the documentary instructions of Vladimir Putin, taking into account the closed part, up to 0.5 trillion rubles was spent. per year (formally the presidential fund also amounted to about 100 billion rubles a year). The reduced volume of the government reserve fund in 2018 was explained by the fact that in 2018 150.9 billion rubles were transferred to it. "Carry-over balances" - including 72.9 billion rubles. unclaimed targeted transfers to regions. However, according to the information of the Ministry of Finance prepared for this meeting, as of February 28, this reserve has almost the same amount as allocated by the budget for 2018 - "free" funds in it remained 53.4 billion rubles.

The purely "pre-election" spending of the government fund is small, although they seem to constitute the largest item of expenditure. 36.7 billion rubles. was spent on subsidies to the regions in order to stimulate the growth of the tax potential (that is, regional investment), 20 billion rubles to support the balance of budgets (usually due to lack of money due to the need to implement the May decrees), 10 billion rubles for repairs children's polyclinics. Unsatisfied were applications for financial assistance to constituent entities of the Russian Federation for 18.5 billion rubles., Of which the Ministry of Finance recognizes the rationality of payment of applications for only 3 billion rubles. Among the motives for receiving assistance by the subjects are "circumstances of force majeure" and "termination of the powers of the highest official of the RF subject in 2017", that is, some part of the funds is required to overcome the legacy of the retired governor.

In the conditionally "non-regional" (mostly funds are still spent in the regions), parts of the very large articles that have been spent are not. Under the item "other measures" the largest expenses are predictable, they appear in almost all such documents - 12.2 billion rubles. to support the car industry, 10 billion rubles. 6 billion rubles for the project "Sukhoi Superjet 100", 7 billion rubles for agriculture (of which 5 billion rubles for subsidies to builders of greenhouses), 5 billion rubles for agriculture, VEB to support agriculture. 3.3 billion rubles. support the project "Digital Economy". In the medical field, the largest pre-expenditure is 4.4 billion rubles. on the development of palliative care (hospices), 3.5 billion rubles - to connect medical institutions to the Internet, 2.5 billion rubles - to improve the skills of doctors. For the most part, almost 80 billion rubles. "Non-regional" money went to pieces - it's "separate events of the Russian Foreign Ministry" (1.2 billion rubles.), And power lines in Chukotka (3 billion rubles.), And "Russian Seasons in Italy" (0.2 billion rubles. ).

In the list of expenses of the reserve fund of the White House, we note that the first expenses for a fire in the Winter Cherry in Kemerovo were in time - on March 26, 80 million rubles have been allocated for this purpose. Note, the reserves of the White House for three quarters of 2018 are very small, and now to increase them in an emergency, a budget review will be required. Meanwhile, in contrast to the regions, the ministries have unsatisfied formal applications for spending in the Ministry of Finance for 379.5 billion rubles. Note that this is an uncritical amount, and many of them will be satisfied in the spring and summer of 2018, presumably when the budget is revised - however, it is not known whether it will provide for a second round of filling the reserve already for the new government.