The Ministry of Economy, in preparation for the budgetary process for 2022–2024, has determined the volume of federal investment spending – about 3.3 trillion rubles. for three years with an increase of up to 1.28 trillion rubles. in 2024. The priority for 2022 is to cover the “covid deficit” of financing in public investments, which developed in 2020–2021, taking into account the rise in the cost of construction projects, this is about 150 billion rubles. In itself, the rise in the cost of construction projects due to the rise in prices for building materials, according to estimates, will cost an additional 15 billion rubles. in year. Over 600 objects worth 1.2 trillion rubles will remain on the waiting list for federal investments for the next three years, half of them are unfinished construction projects. The government intends to focus in the coming years on completing projects that it sacrificed for operating expenses in previous years.
On May 24, Minister of Economy Maxim Reshetnikov held a meeting of the interdepartmental commission to prepare proposals for the formation and improvement of the efficiency of investment expenditures at the expense of the federal budget for the next financial year and for the planning period. The commission with a record lengthy name is the main government structure that determines government spending mainly within the framework of the Federal Targeted Investment Program (FAIP), from which mainly government construction projects in the regions are financed at the federal budget level: schools, clinics, cultural facilities. The FAIP Expenditure Commission anticipates the launch of the budget process for 2022-2024.
This year, the commission received applications for state investment worth 6.6 trillion rubles. with the last three-year budget for 2022–2023 approved in the past (expenditures for 2024 are still very conditional), a limit of 1.8 trillion rubles. “Raw” projects with documentation problems for 1.9 trillion rubles were rejected without discussion. Projects worth 1.3 trillion rubles. remained on the “waiting list”, more than 300 projects of which are “rolling”, that is, started and not completed state construction. It was recommended to finance projects for 1.016 trillion rubles. in 2022, by 1.066 trillion rubles. in 2023 and – with optimism, while there are no budgetary projections – 1.28 trillion rubles. for 2024. In 2022, the current budgetary allocations for federal investments of this type are 0.88 trillion rubles, in 2023 – 0.93 trillion rubles.
FAIP for the next three years has its own characteristics. On the one hand, only in 2020, according to the minister, the state “reached the level of ten years ago” in terms of the volume of commissioning of facilities financed from the federal level: “construction is the first direction from which money is withdrawn to solve operational problems,” the Ministry of Economy states. federal investment spending to GDP is a constantly decreasing value. In 2020, the expenses of the FAIP decreased due to the transfer of funds (from 175 facilities) to the fight against coronavirus (minus 100 billion rubles, the Ministry of Economy calls it the “coronavirus deficit”) and additional expenses on road construction (about 35 billion rubles, the ministry hopes to return them to FAIP later).
Due to this, in the coming years, the planned increase in the expenses of the FAIP will, in fact, mainly solve the accumulated problems. Covering the “covid deficit” from 2022 is the main priority; in the targeted program, about 150 billion rubles are needed to “return the borrowed”: deferred construction projects always rise in price. At the same time, the increase in prices for building materials required the Ministry of Economy to develop a new procedure for revising the cost of objects, while in the meantime, to cover the increased inflation in building materials, the FAIP reserves 15 billion rubles each. per year – note that this is a very conservative estimate. The second priority was declared to be the “rolling” unfinished objects of previous years: they require more than 450 billion rubles in 2022-2024. Finally, 530 billion rubles. 270 new facilities are required for three years on instructions from the government and the president (note that some of these projects are still on the “waiting list”). As a result, financing from FAIP for projects that are not there as of May 2021 is practically not expected until 2024, at least these decisions are unlikely to be made in 2021.
The participants of the meeting supported the approaches of the Ministry of Economy in general. Note that this year the FAIP will be approved in paper form for the last time. In the very near future, the Ministry of Economy is launching a state platform for working with investment expenses, which includes all objects of the FAIP: in paper and in figures, documents on federal projects will be processed in parallel only in 2021 (the department, however, plans that the FAIP will be approved this year digitally), then there will be a transition to digital only and the inclusion of regional state investment projects in the state platform.
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