Duma committee to hold first meeting on 2003 budget draft

The State Duma budget and taxes committee will hold the first meetingdevoted to the 2003 budget draft today, deputy chairman of the committeeValery Galchenko reported to journalists. He noted that the lower house ofparliament would most likely consider the budget draft on the first readingon September 25. The Duma official also stated that deputies had alreadyreceived copies of the budget draft.The 2003 budget draft has the following parameters: budget revenues - about2.418 trillion rubles ($76.6bn), expenditures - about 2.346 trillion rubles($74.317bn), budget surplus - about 72.15bn rubles ($2.29bn). According toGalchenko, 51.415bn rubles (about $1.63bn) out of the budget surplus willbe allocated for foreign debt payments and 20.735bn rubles ($657m) will betransferred to the financial reserve..