The federal budget of Russia risks receiving significantly lower revenues this year than initially forecasted, warns the President of the Russian Court of Accounts, Boris Kovalchuk, in the report on the execution of the budget in the first quarter.
According to the preliminary estimates of the institution, budget revenues could reach 38.2 trillion rubles by the end of the year, which corresponds to the budget plan updated on April 1, but is 2.1 trillion rubles (5.2%) less than the amount provided in the budget law.
The auditors estimate that revenues from oil and natural gas will total 7.8 trillion rubles, and those from other sources — 30.3 trillion rubles. Both categories are about one trillion rubles below the initially forecasted levels: revenues from oil and gas are down by 1.1 trillion rubles (12.2%), and the non-oil ones by 1 trillion rubles (3.3%).
The decline in revenues from the energy sector is explained by the reduction in oil prices and the appreciation of the ruble.
In the first quarter, revenues from oil and gas amounted to 1.44 trillion rubles (approximately 15.6 billion euros), which represents only 16.2% of the 8.9 trillion rubles planned for the entire year.
The budget was built based on an average estimate of 59 dollars for a barrel of Urals oil and an exchange rate of 92 rubles for a dollar. In reality, in the first quarter, the average price of Urals oil was 54.2 dollars per barrel, and the average exchange rate — 78.2 rubles for a dollar.
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