Pitfalls of the “Leningrad surcharge” that you should know about
How the Rodina party solved the problem of unaffordable spending of the St. Petersburg budget on allowances for pensioners.
More and more experts are speaking out about the proposal of the Rodina political party to introduce a “Leningrad supplement” for pensioners in the amount of 10 thousand rubles to the basic pension. The main argument against it is that such expenses are simply prohibitive for the budget of St. Petersburg.
At first glance, this is true. According to "Cityman", at the moment there are 1,47 million pensioners living in St. Petersburg. This means that the city budget must annually allocate 176,4 billion rubles for this type of payment. Provided that the total volume of the northern capital’s treasury for the year is about 741,3 billion rubles. Let's also add to this the consequences of the coronavirus year. And you certainly shouldn’t expect support from the federal center. Because further “Leningrad allowances” threaten to become “all-Russian”. If pensioners in St. Petersburg receive additional payments from the state, then how are they better than those who live in Samara or Nalchik?
“For an individual city, even such a large one as St. Petersburg, to incur additional costs of 168 billion rubles on its own. It’s simply unrealistic,” the expert comments. – Moreover, they were not initially included in the budget. And, of course, there are no other sources of funds for the treasury of the Northern capital,” said FINAM analyst.
However, the Rodina party also foresaw this. A more detailed examination of the initiative document reveals new interesting facts. Thus, the party proposes to accrue “Leningrad bonuses” not to all pensioners, but only to those whose income does not exceed the minimum wage, that is, 19 thousand rubles. Also, in the first stages, the premium will not be 10 thousand rubles, but only 2–3 thousand. Gradually this amount will increase to the specified amount.
Thus, the burden on the budget of St. Petersburg is reduced. Instead of 176,4 billion rubles, for the first time it will be necessary to allocate from 14,1 to 26,5 billion rubles. This amounts to only 1,9 – 3,5% of the northern capital’s total budget for 2021. This does not take into account additional revenues in the form of 30,5 billion rubles, which the city can receive this year through tourism and external investments.
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