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#16 - JRL 9130 - JRL Home
PUTIN CALLS TO REHASH BUDGET: MIRONOV

MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) - With his state-of-the-nation address, President Vladimir Putin is calling to revise this year's federal budget, Speaker Sergei Mironov of the Federation Council, parliament's upper house, said to the media.

Regional budgets fell a total 85 billion rubles short of targets last year, with a respective 130-140 billion forecast for this year, he stressed. R27.73/$1 is today's Central Bank rate.

"This year's budget surplus is at 230 billion rubles. Considering that, I think the President has made an emphatic call to reconsider interbudgetary relations-in particular, the current surplus."

The Federation Council is willing to consider whatever legislative initiatives come up on that score from the Cabinet. "If none appear, we shall launch budget revision on our own," the Speaker went on.

It was a "landmark statement" as President Putin insistently called to raise wages by 50 per cent in government-financed companies and offices. "I regard it as a rebuff to certain liberals in the government who think Russian public incomes are growing too rapidly," said Mr. Mironov.

As things really are, this country has no adequate effective consumer demands, and the federal President made a spectacular stress on the fact.

"He made an explicit call on the Russian biz to proceed from clear-cut rules and make its performance predictable. What Russia needs are favorable terms for free enterprise, whether small or medium-rank, or again, big."

The Speaker appreciated no less highly President Putin's insistent call to urgently offer a legislative backing to cut to three years a limitation period within which privatization deals may be challenged. "That's essential to Big Biz-or investment hazards will skyrocket," remarked Mr. Mironov.

He highlighted another point in the presidential address-the necessity of national economic zones taboo to overseas investment. The Speaker thinks major natural deposits of a strategic purport should be entitled to that status.