Belarus executes Union State budget in full

Belarus executes the Union State budget in full, said Deputy State Secretary of the Union State Albert Stepanov when asked by BelTA. He added, this year’s budget execution was quite problematic. The issue had already been discussed by the Council of Ministers and the Permanent Committee of the Union State. Albert Stepanov mentioned several problems impeding the budget execution by Russia, in particular, the fact that the Industry and Energy Ministry slows down the work. It used to be condoned as the Ministry went through an administrative reform, but now there are no explanations as the Ministry’s work as the state customer in implementing Union programmes is slowed down. Albert Stepanov said he believes that unwilling to compete with Belarus the Industry and Energy Ministry slows down the adoption of the programme for designing a universal energy unit. The project involves designing combine harvesters, including designing in association with Gomselmash. The red tape benefits neither the Union budget nor integration ties, he stressed. Albert Stepanov noted, money for the Union programme for developing diesel automobile engineering will be received by the end of the year. The programme’s financing was suspended in H1 2007 as companies had to return the loans they had taken earlier to the budget. Now the work on the project is in full swing. The project has earned RUB134 million in profits for the Union budget. Participants of the diesel automobile engineering programme use their own money to carry out the designated work but they will be reimbursed.