‘There are about 370-380 benefits in the country, they cost the budget 11.5-12 trillion rubles’

Such a KPI would be enough to build schools

Head of the Accounts Chamber Boris Kovalchuk appointed in May last year delivered a report today at a plenary session in the Russian parliament. In fact, he opened a series of important political events that will be held in the State Duma in the near future. Thus, next week, head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina is expected to report on the implementation of monetary policy, and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on the work of the government, noted State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. In this sense, Kovalchuk's report can be considered a kind of prologue to economic reforms.

The new chief auditor relied on a specific KPI he informed parliamentarians about. Now the Accounts Chamber does not just identify violations in the management of budget money and shakes its finger at violators, but demands the return of money to the treasury. “The economic effect is the main priority for the Accounts Chamber, including from the point of view of the tangibility of our work,” noted Boris Kovalchuk.

The effectiveness of the work, according to him, lies in “the volume of funds and property returned to the treasury and the increase in budget revenues at all levels.” In the first year of the new course, the Accounts Chamber managed to achieve the return of 95.9 billion rubles — these are direct transfers to budgets at all levels. And the total economic effect amounted to 148.9 billion rubles, which became a record for the entire 30-year history of the Accounts Chamber.

“This figure is more than the three-year estimated budget expenditures on the construction of new schools,” emphasized Chairman of the State Duma Control Committee Oleg Morozov.

The cost of purchasing prostheses was overstated by two times

Speaking about the priorities of the Accounts Chamber in 2024, the head of the control agency first of all noted control over the implementation of national goals and instructions set by the country's president. In total, the Accounts Chamber conducted 38 audits in the reporting year directly related to the implementation of national priorities. 113 events on this topic have already been planned for 2025.

Among the priority areas of the audit are issues related to the special military operation. Thus, the Accounts Chamber revealed a twofold overstatement of the cost of purchasing prostheses for disabled people and veterans of the special military operation. Currently, 9,500 people are on the waiting list to receive rehabilitation equipment. The Accounts Chamber discovered two critical points. Firstly, deliveries are delayed for more than six months, after which the appointment period expires. Secondly, if the person in need buys it himself, then the refund is late. The Accounts Chamber promised to look into the matter and conduct an audit of the Social Insurance Fund.

A fundamentally different approach was taken to the audit of budget revenues, noted Chairman of the State Duma Control Committee Oleg Morozov. According to him, as a result, 10.6 billion rubles were returned due to the audit of administration (direct return) and 336.6 billion — the volume of violations identified during the implementation of state programs.

How the results of state programs are “adjusted”

Deputies are not happy when the authors of programmes declare inflated goals, and by the end of their implementation they “adjust” them to what they have achieved. “The audit of state programs confirms that the changes, and there are more than 800 of them, are bypassing parliamentary control. And this significantly reduces the quality of the implementation of state programs. They are adjusted to improved indicators,” Morozov noted.

“At first they talk about some plans, and at the end of the year they go and change them. Let's propose a procedure: if you want to change the parameters [of the state program], come to the State Duma, agree on them,” State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin spoke out against the “adjustment.”

He suggested thinking about preparing an appeal to the chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.

The head of the Accounts Chamber is not going to stop at the achieved KPI of 96 billion rubles. When asked where there are reserves for expanding the field, he announced plans to study the validity of providing tax breaks. According to him, the country provides about 370-380 tax breaks for almost 12 trillion rubles. Until now, additional billions have been received by the treasury through the audit of customs and tax additional charges (56-57 billion rubles).

Tax breaks to be checked

“There is a section called Tax Expenditures. So, tax expenditures are about 370-380 benefits. They cost the federal and regional budgets 11.5-12 trillion rubles. And here we would like to take a close look at how these tax expenditures correspond to the tasks that are set. And these are the tasks of implementing state programs, supporting certain sectors of the economy, technological sovereignty. We would like to study this in detail. And we are sure that the potential in terms of increasing federal budget revenues in this mechanism, which, let me remind you again, is about 12 trillion rubles, is definitely there,” said Boris Kovalchuk.

We can seriously talk about revising the benefits if the Russian Ministry of Finance, and not the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, announces this, noted Professor at Moscow State University Natalya Zubarevich who deals with the economic development of regions. According to her, it is unreasonable to take away benefits at the investment project stage.

“In 2022-2023, the tax benefits of the Republic of Tatarstan amounted to about 12 billion rubles annually (data for 2024 has not yet been published). This is approximately 3% of its tax and non-tax revenues,” clarified head of the ACRA sovereign and regional ratings group Yelena Anisimova. “Almost 40% of this amount for 2023 came from regional (established by the republic) benefits on profit tax for enterprises of its SEZ and priority development areas. Considering that these projects are a form of attracting direct investment, and the activities of the SEZ are regulated by federal law, it is difficult to assume that any benefits within the framework of these projects will be radically revised, although in general the Ministry of Finance notes that in some cases the SEZ regime in a number of areas requires “fine-tuning.” In addition, Alabuga is recognized as the leader in efficiency among SEZs.

When assessing tax benefits, regional authorities take into account the demand for the benefit, the compliance of the benefit with the goals of socio-economic development (job creation, production growth, SME development, the social nature of the benefit, etc.). If the benefit does not meet any of the established criteria, it is cancelled.

Since 2022, the analytical system Efficiency of Benefits has been in effect in Russia, assessing the impact of tax benefits on the financial and economic indicators of taxpayers in comparison with industry-wide levels. This system allows to determine the low level of investment activity, the absence of growth in the number of employees and expenses on wages and R&D under the condition of applying benefits, and also to assess whether the application of benefits leads to the formation of excess profitability for the taxpayer. Depending on the share of such taxpayers, a conclusion is formed on the effectiveness of benefits.