Free cash register: The authorities have found a way to reduce the budget deficit
The Ministry of Finance has found a way to reduce the budget deficit. It plans to receive more income from the management of temporarily free funds, follows from the draft government decree (Izvestia has it). We are talking about money that has already entered the treasury, but it has not yet been spent. Usually, funds are placed on deposits or in securities — these processes are planned to be automated and simplified. According to experts, the changes will allow for an additional 200 billion rubles. This should support the treasury in an environment where oil and gas revenues are declining and the forecast for shortages has already tripled to 3.8 trillion rubles.
A new calculation mechanism in the budget
The Russian Federation plans to introduce a new mechanism for managing temporarily free budget funds, follows from a draft government decree (prepared by the Ministry of Finance, the document is available to Izvestia). We are talking about money that has already been transferred to the treasury from taxpayers and other items, but has not yet been actually used for any expenses. They are stored in a single treasury account and placed, for example, on bank deposits or in securities.
The current mechanism for working with temporarily available funds provides that the Treasury signs contracts (for example, for opening a deposit) with banks for each transaction separately. This requires a lot of time to process the documents, explained Maxim Barashev, Managing Partner of BBNP law firm. Calculations for each operation are also processed individually.
Now it is proposed to combine the obligations of the parties under contracts (for example, deposits or securities transactions) — as a result, the number of payment transactions will decrease while maintaining the same amount of funds involved. They will be transferred to an intermediary, a clearing organization, the expert specified. This will significantly reduce the processing time of documents and thus increase the number of operations performed to place temporarily available funds during the day.
The mechanism will allow the budget to earn money, while such changes will not require additional financing, Maxim Barashev summed up.
The explanatory note to the document of the Ministry of Finance emphasizes that the innovation will make the use of funds more efficient. It will also contribute to the development of the financial market as a whole.
The mechanism should be operational on September 1, 2025, according to the draft resolution. Izvestia has sent a request to the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury on how its implementation will affect revenues to the treasury.
Budget deficit of the Russian Federation in 2025
Temporarily free balances of funds and earnings on them are quite impressive amounts, said Ekaterina Golubtsova, Associate Professor of the Department of State and Municipal Finance at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. For example, in 2024, the Treasury transferred 1.1 trillion rubles to the budgets (of which 872 billion went to the federal budget) — this is the total amount of income from the placement of temporarily available funds.
In conditions of budget deficit, the authorities are looking for ways to reduce it, and the new settlement procedure is one of these methods, said Alexey Tarapovsky, founder of Anderida Financial Group. He will be able to help reduce the shortage in the future, the expert is sure.
The more efficient the management of funds is, the more the state will be able to earn. Yaroslav Kabakov, Director of Strategy at Finam IC, estimates that the proposed changes could bring up to 200 billion rubles of additional revenue per year to the federal budget. For comparison, this is twice as much as all the self—employed paid taxes in 2024.
Fund balance management is one of the most important mechanisms available to the authorities to use liquidity, that is, to earn money without increasing the burden on citizens and businesses, Ekaterina Golubtsova emphasized. It is particularly relevant against the background of high market rates.
— At the same time, there will be no undesirable socio-economic consequences for the population of our country. There will also be no need to increase government spending on its implementation," she said.
In addition, by effectively managing the temporarily available funds of the regions, the federal treasury can reduce the need for additional inter-budget transfers or loans.
Revenue growth is especially important to reduce the treasury deficit. Due to sanctions pressure and lower oil prices (since the beginning of the year, Brent quotes have dropped by a quarter to $65 per barrel), the Ministry of Finance has already revised its forecast for shortages in 2025 — it has tripled to 3.8 trillion rubles. At the same time, in just four months this threshold has almost been reached — 3.2 trillion rubles. However, the situation may still change by the end of the year, as the government may slow down spending while increasing revenues.
Meanwhile, the authorities are looking for other ways to reduce the budget deficit. For example, last year the government approved the Finance Ministry's proposal to reduce spending on "unprotected" budget items by 10%. According to media reports, the total amount of optimization amounted to about 450 billion rubles.
In conditions of limited budget resources, it is important not only to control expenses, but also to manage existing assets as efficiently as possible, summed up Yaroslav Kabakov from Finam. Automation, reduction of operational risks, and increased transparency of financial transactions all contribute to strengthening the stability of the budget system and allow for rapid response to changes in the economic situation.
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