Federal budget deficit limits. The concept of the budget deficit, its economic essence and methods of managing it. The maximum size of the budget deficit of the Russian Federation

10.12.2023

A budget deficit is the excess of expenses over income. Balancing budgets at all levels is a necessary condition fiscal policy.

Subject to availability budget deficit Priority funding is given to expenses included in the current expenditure budget. Budget deficit size federal budget cannot exceed the total volume budget investments and maintenance costs government debt RF in the corresponding financial year.

The size of the budget deficit of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation cannot exceed 15% of the volume of budget revenues of the constituent entity without taking into account financial assistance from the federal budget.

The size of the budget deficit of the local budget, approved normative act representative body of local self-government, cannot exceed 10% of local budget revenues without taking into account financial assistance from the federal budget and the budget of the subject Russian Federation.

Loans from the Bank of Russia, as well as the acquisition by the Bank of Russia of debt obligations of the Russian Federation, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, municipalities during their initial placement they cannot be sources of financing the budget deficit.

The sources of financing the federal budget deficit are:

internal sources in the following forms: loans received from credit institutions in Russian currency; government loans carried out by issuing securities on behalf of the Russian Federation; budget loans and budget credits received from budgets of other levels budget system; proceeds from the sale of property located in state property; the amount of excess of income over expenses on state reserves and reserves; changes in fund balances in federal budget accounts;
external sources in the following forms: government loans made in foreign currency by issuing securities on behalf of the Russian Federation; government loans foreign countries, banks and firms, international financial organizations provided in foreign currency.

Additional funds

Government credit reflects credit relations regarding the mobilization by the state of temporarily free cash enterprises, organizations and the population on a repayable basis to finance government spending.
Lenders are individuals and legal entities, the borrower is the state represented by its bodies.

Additional financial resources the state attracts funds by selling bonds and other government securities on the financial market. This form The loan allows the state to attract additional financial resources to cover the budget deficit without issuing emissions for these purposes.

State credit is also used for stabilization purposes money circulation in the country.

Classification of government loan:

Depending on the borrower, government loans are divided into those placed by central government bodies and those placed by local government bodies.
At the location of the state credit can be internal and external.
By terms of attraction: short-term (up to a year); medium-term (from one to 5 years); long-term.

The size of the government loan is included in the amount of the country's public debt.

If the budget for the next fiscal year with a deficit, the sources of financing the budget deficit are approved by appropriate decision. If a budget is adopted for the next financial year without a deficit, the corresponding budget decision may provide for the attraction of funds from sources of financing the budget deficit to finance budget expenses within the limits of debt repayment costs. The size of the regional budget deficit, approved by the law of the subject of the Federation on the budget for the corresponding year, cannot exceed 15% of the volume of regional budget revenues without taking into account financial assistance from the federal budget. If the budget for the corresponding year approves the amount of proceeds from the sale of property, the maximum amount of the regional budget deficit may exceed the 15% limit, but not more than by the amount of proceeds from the sale of property. The state debt of the region is fully and unconditionally secured by all property owned by the constituent entity of the Federation that makes up the treasury of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation. The region's debt obligations are repaid within periods determined by the terms of borrowing and cannot exceed 30 years. The maximum volume of public debt of a constituent entity of the Federation should not exceed the volume of revenues of the corresponding budget without taking into account financial assistance from the budgets of other levels of the budget system of the Russian Federation.

2.6.Financial assistance from the federal budget

The Budget Code of the Russian Federation establishes the following forms of providing financial assistance to regional budgets from the federal budget:

Providing subsidies to equalize the level of minimum budgetary provision of regions;

Providing subventions and subsidies to finance certain targeted expenses;

Providing budget loans;

Providing a budget loan to cover temporary cash gaps that arise during the execution of the regional budget. Financial assistance from the federal budget to equalize the level of minimum budgetary provision of the regions is provided subject to the signing of an agreement on the execution of the regional budget through the Federal Treasury of the Russian Federation. All budgets are drawn up and executed on the basis of the principle of priority financing of expenses related to ensuring minimum state social standards with the unconditional fulfillment of debt obligations. Until funding for minimum state social standards is ensured at the level of minimum budgetary provision, the draft budget cannot include expenses (and during budget execution, expenses cannot be financed) that are not related to the achievement of minimum state social standards, or expenses that ensure the financing of individual state social standards above the minimum level while underfinancing others with unconditional fulfillment of debt obligations. Subventions and subsidies to the budgets of constituent entities of the Russian Federation are provided to finance expenses that have targeted nature(expenses under federal target programs, capital expenses, expenses transferred from the budgets of other levels of the budget system of the Russian Federation, and other targeted expenses). The procedure for their provision and calculation are determined by a special federal law or the budget for the next financial year.

E.A. Chugarina, Head of the Finance Department of the Perm City Administration

Dear colleagues!

The problem of contradiction between two concepts of the component of financial assistance leads to the question of the correctness of determining the maximum size of the local budget deficit, in terms of including subventions from other budget levels in the total volume of financial assistance.
In accordance with clause 5 of Article 92 of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, the size of the local budget deficit cannot exceed 10% of local budget revenues without taking into account financial assistance from the federal budget and the budget of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation.
On the one hand, according to clause 5 of Article 41 of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation in determining the types of income, gratuitous and non-refundable transfers include financial assistance from budgets of other levels in the form grants and subsidies .
On the other hand, in accordance with clause 2 of Article 181 of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, financial assistance to the budgets of other levels of the budget system of the Russian Federation includes grants, subventions and subsidies .
In this connection, in our opinion, the volume of financial assistance, the amount of which reduces local budget revenues, when calculating the maximum size of the budget deficit, should include revenues in the form of grants, subventions and subsidies.

On November 8, 2006, we sent a request to the Department of Budget Policy of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation regarding the issue of clarification of the correct use of indicators to determine the maximum size of the local budget deficit. The sections “Financiers of Municipal Entities” and “Communities of Financiers of Russia” were invited to study the problem and make their proposals on this issue. Letters with a similar question were sent for discussion to the heads of financial bodies of local government.
I would like to thank everyone who shared their experience in solving this problem - the Department of Finance of the Administration of Lipetsk, the Financial Department of Bratsk, the Department of Finance of Krasnodar, the Financial Department of ZATO Seversk, the Department of Finance of the Administration of Izhevsk, the Department of Finance of Krasnoyarsk, the Ministry of Finance of Kaluga region in Kaluga, financial department of the city of Penza, financial and treasury department of the Administration of the city of Ivanovo, financial department of the administration of the city of Tula, financial department of the city administration of Khabarovsk, finance committee of the administration of Saratov, department of finance of the mayor's office of the city of Yaroslavl. All information on the experience of the regions presented by the NP “Community of Financiers” has been studied and analyzed.
Using the example of information provided by the Department of Finance of the Krasnoyarsk City Administration, the maximum size of the budget deficit of the city of Krasnoyarsk is determined without taking into account financial assistance from other levels of the budget system, including grants, subventions and subsidies.
When determining the maximum level of deficit financial management ZATO Seversk excludes all gratuitous receipts from budgets of other levels from the volume of income, while the budget deficit is 9.97%.
There are also opposing opinions. The financial department of the Tula city administration proposes to exclude from the volume of financial assistance the subventions provided for in accordance with Article 181 of the Budget Code by introducing appropriate changes to the Budget Code.

Moreover, it remains unresolved problem inclusion of subsidies in the form of an additional standard for deductions to the budgets of municipal districts (urban districts) from income tax individuals when determining the maximum size of the local budget deficit. The problem is to determine the volume of the specified subsidy used to calculate the deficit in the case when the volume of the subsidy approved by the law of the subject does not coincide with the amount of deductions based on the tax potential of the municipality.
Article 138 of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation provides that funds received by municipalities according to the additional standard of deductions from personal income tax in excess of the amount of the calculated subsidy (part of the calculated subsidy) are withdrawn to the budget of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation and (or) taken into account during the subsequent distribution of financial assistance to local budgets are not subject to, losses of the municipal budget in connection with the receipt of funds below the calculated subsidy (part of the calculated subsidy) are not compensated and are not taken into account in the subsequent distribution of financial assistance.
According to the Department of Finance of the Krasnoyarsk City Administration, the municipality should be guided by the amount of the additional standard of deductions that is established in the law of the subject of the Russian Federation. The volumes approved by the budget law take into account the size of the subsidy and the financial management of the city of Penza.
Although there is an opposite opinion presented by the finance department of the Izhevsk city administration, where the index of the tax potential of the urban district is used in budget calculations.

We count timely preparation project for introducing amendments and additions to the Budget Code of the Russian Federation.
In the proposed draft, which is under consideration, changes are made to Article 92 regarding the determination of the size of the deficit: “The maximum value of the budget deficit of a municipal formation should not exceed 10 percent of the approved annual volume of budget revenues of the municipal formation without taking into account gratuitous receipts and (or) revenues tax revenue according to additional deduction standards.”
It is proposed to exclude the concept of “financial assistance” and clarify the concept of gratuitous receipts: “Gratuitous receipts include:
grants and subsidies from other budgets of the budget system of the Russian Federation;
subventions from the federal budget and (or) from the budgets of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation;
others intergovernmental transfers from other budgets of the budget system of the Russian Federation";

There is another problem in determining the maximum level of the budget deficit - this is the problem of accounting for balances. Every year, planning budget parameters and deficits is complicated by the balances in the city budget account as of January 1 in the form of funds received from subventions from the federal and regional budgets that were not used during the year, as well as balances of funds from entrepreneurial and other income-generating activities. If a budget with a deficit of 10% is adopted, clarification of the budget for the balances of these funds leads to exceeding the maximum permissible level of the budget deficit.
We propose, due to the fact that income from business and other income-generating activities are funds of a targeted nature, when preparing draft amendments and additions to the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, paragraph 5 of Article 92 should be stated as follows: “The maximum value of the budget deficit of a municipal formation is not must exceed 10 percent of the approved annual budget revenue of the municipality without taking into account gratuitous receipts, income from the provision of paid services provided budgetary institutions, after payment of taxes and fees provided for by the legislation on taxes and fees and (or) receipt of tax revenues according to additional standards of deductions.”

Balancing budgets at all levels is a necessary condition for fiscal policy. The excess of expenses over income constitutes a budget deficit. Budget surplus is the excess of budget revenues over its expenses;

If there is a budget deficit, priority financing is given to expenses included in the current expenditure budget. The size of the federal budget deficit cannot exceed the total volume of budget investments and expenses for servicing the public debt of the Russian Federation in the corresponding financial year.

The size of the budget deficit of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation cannot exceed 15% of the volume of budget revenues of the constituent entity without taking into account financial assistance from the federal budget.

The size of the local budget deficit, approved by a regulatory act of a representative body of local self-government, cannot exceed 10% of local budget revenues without taking into account financial assistance from the federal budget and the budget of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation.

If, in the process of budget execution, the maximum deficit level is exceeded or there is a significant decrease in revenue from budget revenue sources, then a mechanism for sequestration of expenses is introduced, which consists of a proportional reduction in government spending (by 5, 10, 15, and so on percent) monthly on all budget items during remaining time of the current financial year. Protected articles are not subject to sequestration (their composition is determined by the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, as well as by the representative authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation).

Sources of financing the budget deficit are approved by the legislative (representative) authorities in the budget law for the next financial year according to the main types of funds raised.

Loans from the Bank of Russia, as well as the acquisition by the Bank of Russia of debt obligations of the Russian Federation, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and municipalities during their initial placement cannot be sources of financing the budget deficit.

Sources of financing the federal budget deficit are:

1) internal sources in the following forms:

loans received from credit institutions in Russian currency;

government loans carried out by issuing securities on behalf of the Russian Federation;

budget loans and budget credits received from budgets of other levels of the budget system;

proceeds from the sale of state-owned property;

the amount of excess of income over expenses on state reserves and reserves;

changes in fund balances in federal budget accounts;

2) external sources in the following forms:

government loans made in foreign currency by issuing securities on behalf of the Russian Federation;

loans from foreign governments, banks and firms, international financial organizations, provided in foreign currency.

State credit reflects credit relations regarding the state's mobilization of temporarily free funds of enterprises, organizations and the population on a repayable basis to finance government spending.

The lender is individuals and legal entities, the borrower is the state represented by its bodies.

The state attracts additional financial resources by selling bonds and other government securities on the financial market. This form of credit allows the state to attract additional financial resources to cover the budget deficit without issuing emissions for these purposes.

State The loan is also used to stabilize money circulation in the country.

Classification of government credit.

1. Depending on the borrower, government loans are divided into:

¨ placed by central management bodies;

¨ placed by local authorities.

2. At the location of the state. credit can be internal and external.

3. By terms of attraction:

· short-term (up to a year);

· medium-term (from one year to 5 years);

· long-term.

The size of the government loan is included in the amount of the country's public debt.

1. If a budget for the next financial year with a deficit is adopted, the relevant law (decision) on the budget approves the sources of financing the budget deficit.

2. Current expenses of the budget of a subject of the Russian Federation, the local budget, approved accordingly by the law on the budget of a subject of the Russian Federation or a normative act of a representative body of local self-government, cannot exceed the volume of budget revenues of the subject of the Russian Federation, the volume of local budget revenues, approved accordingly by the law on the budget of a subject of the Russian Federation Federation or a regulatory act of a representative body of local government.
3. The size of the federal budget deficit, approved by the federal law on the federal budget, cannot exceed the total volume of budget investments and expenses for servicing the public debt of the Russian Federation in the corresponding financial year.
4. The size of the budget deficit of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, approved by the law of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation on the budget for the corresponding year, cannot exceed 15 percent of the budget revenues of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation without taking into account financial assistance from the federal budget.
If the law of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation on the budget for the corresponding year approves the amount of proceeds from the sale of property, the maximum amount of the budget deficit of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation may exceed the limit established by part one of this paragraph, but not more than by the amount of proceeds from the sale of property.
5. The size of the local budget deficit, approved by the normative act of the representative body of local self-government on the budget for the corresponding year, cannot exceed 10 percent of the volume of local budget revenues without taking into account financial assistance from the federal budget and the budget of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation.
If a normative act of a representative body of local self-government on the budget for the corresponding year approves the amount of proceeds from the sale of property, the maximum amount of the local budget deficit may exceed the limit established by part one of this paragraph, but not more than by the amount of proceeds from the sale of property.
6. Compliance with the limit values established by paragraphs 2 - 5 of this article must also be ensured according to the report on the execution of the relevant budget for the financial year.

The commented article is devoted directly to the very concept of deficit, as well as limiting the size of the budget deficit.
According to general theory budget law when adopting a budget law for the next financial year, if this law provides for a budget deficit, i.e. the excess of expenses over its income, such a budget must necessarily determine the sources of financing the budget deficit.
If a budget for the next financial year is adopted without a deficit, the relevant law (decision) on the budget may provide for the attraction of funds from sources of financing the budget deficit to finance budget expenses within the limits of debt repayment costs.
The Budget Code of the Russian Federation has established a number of restrictions that must be adhered to when setting the maximum budget deficit for the next financial year.
Firstly, restrictions for the first level budget, i.e. federal budget. According to the law, the maximum value of the federal budget deficit is determined as the sum of the total volume of budget investments and expenses for servicing the public debt of the Russian Federation.
Secondly, second-level budget restrictions, i.e. regional. According to current legislation:
- current expenses of the regional budget cannot exceed the volume of regional budget revenues;
- the size of the budget deficit of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, approved by the law of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation on the budget for the corresponding year, cannot exceed 15% of the volume of budget revenues of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation without taking into account financial assistance from the federal budget.
Moreover, if the law of a subject of the Russian Federation on the budget for the corresponding year approves the amount of proceeds from the sale of property, the maximum amount of the budget deficit of a subject of the Russian Federation may exceed the limit, but not more than by the amount of proceeds from the sale of property.
Thirdly, these are restrictions for the third level of the budget, i.e. local budget. According to the Book Code of the Russian Federation:
- current expenses of the local budget cannot exceed the volume of local budget revenues;
- the size of the local budget deficit, approved by the normative act of the representative body of local self-government on the budget for the corresponding year, cannot exceed 10% of the volume of local budget revenues without taking into account financial assistance from the federal budget and the budget of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation.
An important point is that if a normative act of a representative body of local government on the budget for the corresponding year approves the amount of proceeds from the sale of property, the maximum amount of the local budget deficit may exceed the limit, but not more than by the amount of proceeds from the sale of property.