SOVEREIGN ECONOMY: TOP EVENTS OF THE WEEK
27/10/2023, 14:30
During its Thursday session, the State Duma approved the first draft of the federal budget for 2024 and the planning period of 2025 and 2026. The budget is projected to have revenues of 35 trillion 65.3 billion rubles (19.5% of GDP) in 2024 and expenditures of 36 trillion 660.7 billion rubles (20.4% of GDP). This will result in a federal budget deficit of 1 trillion 595.4 billion rubles (0.9% of GDP). The GDP is expected to grow by 2.3% and reach 179 trillion 956 billion rubles.
The State Duma Committee criticized the main directions of budgetary, tax, and customs-tariff policies proposed by the Ministry of Finance. The committee's draft conclusion states that the main directions do not reflect the country's current tasks and that the plan to establish a tax and customs service for additional collections revives the practice of "tax terrorism."
The Bulgarian Parliament will consider a complete ban on the supply of Russian oil to the LUKOIL plant. The party "Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria" (GERB) has proposed lifting the exception for using Russian oil by the LUKOIL Neftochim Burgas refinery. The "Movement for Rights and Freedoms" supported the idea. Both parties are part of the government coalition.
The Association of Russian Banks (ARB) and the Association of Big Data (including "Yandex," VK, "Rostelecom," "Megafon," and others) have opposed the draft law on providing law enforcement agencies with access to information systems and customer data. The document suggests that certain law enforcement agencies can remotely modify or delete information about their employees for their own protection.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade recommended the officials to purchase Russian cars. The Ministry of Industry and Trade, in line with presidential instructions on the priority use of Russian passenger cars by officials, recommended that civil servants primarily purchase cars from six Russian brands, including traditional Russian brands such as Lada, "Moskvich," and UAZ, as well as Haval and Evolute.
