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 seems to be the case. According to Gorodovoy , 1,47 million pensioners currently live in St. Petersburg. This means the city budget must allocate 176,4 billion rubles annually for this type of payment. This is assuming that the northern capital's total annual treasury is approximately 741,3 billion rubles. Let's also add the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. And expecting support from the federal government is definitely not worth it, since the "Leningrad supplements" threaten to become "all-Russian." If St. Petersburg pensioners receive additional payments from the state, how are they any better off than those living in Samara or Nalchik?
"For a single city, even one as large as St. Petersburg, to shoulder additional expenses of 168 billion rubles on its own is simply unrealistic," the expert comments. "Especially since they weren't originally budgeted for. And, of course, the Northern Capital has no other sources of revenue," the FINAM analyst noted .
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.
English version :: Read in English: The pitfalls of the "Leningrad bonus" that are worth knowing