MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - The State Duma Friday adopted Russia's first draft budget for 2008-2010 in the second reading.
The draft three-year budget is seen as a transition to longer-term financial planning and is designed to streamline the country's finances and expenditures.
Under it, the budget surplus will be 74.1 billion rubles ($2.9 billion) in 2008, 14.2 billion rubles ($550 million) in 2009, and zero in 2010.
Federal budget income will be 6,644 billion rubles ($257.5 billion), or 19% of GDP, and budget expenditure will amount to 6,570 billion rubles ($255 billion) in 2008. In 2009, federal budget income will stand at 7,465 billion rubles ($289 billion), or 18.8% of GDP, and budget expenditure will be 7,451 billion rubles ($289 billion). Budget income and expenditure will stand at the equal level of 8,089 billion rubles ($314 billion), or 18.1% of GDP, in 2010.
Under a federal law that followed the president's budget address to parliament for 2008-2010 in early March, the Russian Stabilization Fund, set up in 2004 as a cushion against inflation and world market price fluctuations to accumulate windfall oil revenues, will be transformed into the Reserve Fund and the Future Generations Fund.
According to the draft three-year federal budget, the Reserve Fund will be 3.5 trillion rubles ($136 billion) in 2008), 3.97 trillion rubles ($154 billion) in 2009 and 4.48 trillion rubles ($174 billion) in 2010.
Inflation is planned to fall to 6%-7% in 2008, 5.5%-6.5% in 2009 and 5%-6% in 2010.
The price of Russia's Urals blend crude, a benchmark for the national budget, will likely exceed the $61 per barrel projection, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Friday.
