Budget incomes of all levels to increase by 25 per cent within 3 years

The real incomes of the budgets on all levels should increase by 25 per cent within three years, said Russian deputy prime minister, finance minister Alexei Kudrin, when speaking at a session of the trilateral working group for improving inter-budget relations on Wednesday.

The session was chaired by deputy prime minister Viktor Khristenko, and was attended by representatives of the government and both chambers of the Russian parliament, the State Duma and the Council of Federation.

Over the last two years the government and the parliament managed to achieve a definite budget process in the country which corresponds to the budget code and has improved the financing of the country's budget system, according to Kudrin.

Despite the decreased absolute tax rates, the budget incomes have grown thanks to better tax collection ability, the finance minister said. Over the last three years the tax collectability, as well as expenditures of the federal budgets and of regional budgets have grown by 3 per cent of the GDP, he pointed out.

The implementation of new laws have made it more difficult to dodge taxes. Thus, not only current taxes, but also restructured debts are now being collected.

Recently it has become possible to shut down a number of Russian offshores that provided unjustified amount of benefits to economic agents, the minister stressed.

This year the session of the trilateral group for improving inter-budget relations was held before the draft 2003 budget was presented to the State Duma and even to the government, Kudrin pointed out with satisfaction.

The working group will have to meet 3 or 4 times to ensure the draft budget will easily pass all the three readings in the Duma, Khristenko added.