Management of “Transit” Revenues of the Federal Budget in Russia

The article is dedicated to issues related to management of the so-called transit revenues in modern budgeting in Russia. By “transit” revenues the authors mean the category of non-tax budget revenues which are managed outside of established budgetary procedures, are not reflected in federal laws on budget, and are only included in the annual budget execution reports prepared by the Russian Treasury. The authors focus on the two most widespread types of “transit” revenues, i.e. on revenues of foreign establishments from legally permitted activities, and on remaining balances of subsidies and other targeted inter-budget transfers, returned to the federal budget. The major problem of “transit” revenues is that their volume increase and scope extension could cause additional risks associated with stability and robustness of the Russian budgetary system. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that there is no universal solution to this problem, since each type of “transit” revenues is caused by its own reason or group of reasons. The authors analyze modern international experience in similar areas of revenue management and assess the viability of its application in budget revenue management in Russia. “Transit” revenues of foreign establishments originate from their unique legal status, allowing them to keep part of the revenues in the current year and/or in the future periods. Thus, they function in accordance with the net budgeting principle. As for “transit” revenues originated from the return of remaining balances of inter-budget transfers to the federal budget, their growth could be limited by the introduction of a new budgetary instrument, namely a revenue plan.