At a time when oil prices were above $100 per barrel, it was not uncommon to hear talk that Russia was somehow unfairly distributing revenues from the sale of oil abroad. Supporters of a "fair" distribution of money simply divided the gross proceeds for all citizens of the Russian Federation, received a beautiful amount of 37,000 rubles per person per year, and then began to convince their entourage and those they could reach using the Internet that Putin, the oligarchs and the "fucking state" were robbing them.

At a time when oil prices were above $100 per barrel, one could often hear talk about the fact that Russia is somehow unfairly distributing revenues from oil sales abroad. Many people agreed that the income from the export sale of hydrocarbons abroad should be equally distributed among all citizens Russian Federation. Some especially cunning characters even found information on the Internet about the amount of proceeds they received Russian companies for oil sold abroad, divided it into 146 million Russians and received about 37,000 rubles per person per year, which, in their opinion, it would be fair to distribute to every citizen of Russia. One can overlook the fact that such reasoning did not even take into account the costs of oil production, such as the wages of workers extracting and transporting oil, the cost of equipment for all this, investment costs, and so on. Supporters of the "fair" distribution of money simply divided the gross proceeds among all citizens of the Russian Federation, received a beautiful amount of 37,000 rubles per person per year, and then began to convince their entourage and those who could reach with the help of the Internet that Putin, the oligarchs and " the fucking state" robs them.

Is it true that the citizens of Russia do not receive anything from the income that our country receives from oil exports abroad? Are the arguments of the supporters of "a fair distribution of income" true? Now that oil prices have approached their lowest levels for the entire 21st century, our citizens have already managed to feel the consequences of this fall on themselves and on their budget. According to official data, inflation in the country in 2015 was about 13%. But this is the official one, which takes into account changes in prices for goods that are not everyday goods for most citizens of the country. If we calculate inflation only for consumer goods, then it will be in the region of 20-30%. It is foolish to deny the fact that food prices have increased by about a quarter during 2015 - everyone goes to the store and sees the real state of things. Prices for household appliances have risen even more. This is due to the fact that the price of household appliances most of all depends on the dollar exchange rate, since they are imported either in their entirety or in the form of components. The same applies to auto parts, both for domestic and imported cars. So, consumer inflation in the country in 2015 was about 25%, that is, the population impoverished by a quarter. It became impoverished, because in 2015 neither salaries nor pensions were indexed even to the indicator of official inflation, not to mention real, consumer inflation. Moreover, salaries, including those of state employees, have even decreased this year. This happened by reducing additional payments: premiums, allowances and so on. Many regions and municipalities have already announced that in 2016 there will be no indexation of salaries at all. federal level announced a freeze on the indexation of pensions for working pensioners, and for non-working pensioners it will not be indexed significantly. All this, together with the continuing fall in oil prices, seems to hint that in 2016 the population of the country will become even more impoverished than in 2015. The impoverishment of Russian citizens (inflation + reduction in real wages) during 2014-2016, according to my estimates, will be at least fifty%.

But let's still rely on the data that is published official sources. According to these sources, real wages in Russia decreased by 2 to 4% in 2014 depending on the sectors of the economy, in 2015 it decreased by about 10%, the forecast wages for 2016 so far at the level of 3.5 - 4% (data from the Ministry of Labor). I repeat that these are official figures, in reality the figures are even higher, and the forecast for 2016 will be revised several times during the year and, most likely, in 2016 the reduction in real wages will be at the level of 2015. But, again, let's use official data: summing up the figures for 2014, 2015 and the forecast for 2016, we get a decrease in real wages by about 15-18%. That is, over the years that oil prices began to fall rapidly, the real salaries of citizens fell by 15-18% (taking into account the forecast for 2016).

Now the logic is understandable even to a yard dog. If, due to the reduction in oil prices, real wages in the country decrease by at least 15-18%, then it turns out that these 15-18% were a kind of allowance for every citizen of Russia, which in one way or another was paid at the expense of windfall profits from the sale of oil and gas . I don’t even want to talk with those who believe that their income does not depend on oil prices in any way, because they work, for example, in trade, construction or in any other sector of the economy, at first glance, far from oil production. The fact that everything is interconnected in the economy and that the money of the oil sector is smoothly spreading across all industries should be understood by any sane person. In the same way, you need to understand that world oil prices also affect the purchasing power of money within the country. If the price of oil is high, then more currency flows into the country, which favorably affects the exchange rate national currency. If the price decreases, then the inflow of currency is reduced, which ultimately leads to an increase in the dollar exchange rate, and with it a decrease in purchasing power ruble.

We found out that every citizen during all recent years received a certain percentage of his salary from windfall profits from the sale of oil and gas. Let's calculate how much it is not as a percentage, but in rubles from the average salary. In 2014 the official average salary in Russia was at the level of 30 thousand rubles a month. 15-18% of it is about 4.5 - 5.5 thousand rubles. So many rubles a month, on average, each citizen received from windfall profits from the sale of oil and gas both for export and within the country. On an annualized basis, this is about 50-60 thousand rubles. I repeat that this "oil and gas allowance" was obtained from the calculation of the average wage of 30 thousand rubles a month. For some, depending on the size of the salary, it was more, and for someone it was less.

Is it fair that the citizens of Russia did not all receive the same amount of oil and gas allowance, for example, 30 thousand rubles a year, but a differentiated one, which was a percentage of existing salaries? After all, for someone who receives an income of 1 million rubles a year, this conditional allowance was 150-180 thousand rubles a year, and for someone who monthly salary at 20 thousand rubles a month a year he received 240 thousand rubles, this allowance was about 40 thousand rubles a year. I think this is fair. If it were so that the excess profits from the sale of oil and gas were accumulated in some fund, from which then a certain amount would be paid to all citizens of the Russian Federation, then what would happen, for example, with the payment of allowances to such characters as those convicted of pedophilia or drug trafficking, terrorism or murders? Where is the line that determines who would have the right to a premium, and who would not have such a right? And what about migrants who would receive passports only in order to receive an annual allowance? So the scheme, when the state, on the one hand, through taxes and duties, and oil and gas industry through salaries to employees and settlements with enterprises from related industries, oil and gas revenues are distributed throughout the country's economy - more optimal. Each citizen working or receiving benefits and social benefits also received an "oil and gas bonus" in the amount of 15-18% of his "basic" salary.

For those who did not understand how oil and gas revenues were distributed among all citizens of the country, I can say the following: just live and watch what is happening around. 2016 is the year when all Russian citizens lost their "oil and gas bonus" to their salaries due to falling world prices for hydrocarbons.

A bill on the distribution among the Russians of part of the state budget revenues from the sale of oil. On September 20, the document was registered in the database of the lower house of parliament and sent to the Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin.

The deputies propose to distribute 20% of oil revenues for the first financial year after the adoption of the law. For each subsequent year, it is proposed to distribute 2% more. The communists believe that the government is obliged to establish the procedure for obtaining a share by an individual.

The Communist Party proposes to grant the right to receive such income to the following categories of citizens:

Persons who have worked for at least 9 months in the current financial year, or were registered with the employment service and did not receive unemployment benefits at that time;

For pensioners seniority which are at least five years old.

The Government of the Russian Federation promptly gave a negative opinion on the project. The Cabinet of Ministers noted that oil funds are now being spent on ensuring the functions of the state, protecting the rights and freedoms of a citizen.

Everything is so, but foreign experience shows that, where possible, the population does receive a part of the income from the development of subsoil on hand.

So, the average resident of Alaska (USA) receives $ 1,000 per month just for the fact that gold is mined in the state. In addition, in Alaska, since 1970, the Savings Fund has been operating to support future generations. It is formed at the expense of 25% of all existing sources of budget revenues, one way or another related to the taxation of the extraction of mineral resources. The fund invests this money in profitable securities and then distributes part of the income among residents. Once a year, those who have lived that year in Alaska, have not been in prison and have not committed offenses, receive the right to payment. The payout ranges from $1000-2000.

The practice of distributing oil revenues also exists in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. A newborn child in the UAE is provided with $150,000 in royalties from the sale of oil. In Kuwait, the state opens a bank account for a newborn in the amount of $3,000, and provides Kuwaiti citizens with interest-free loan in the amount of $ 220 thousand for housing construction.

In Russia, the picture is different. According to the law “On Subsoil”, “subsoil within the boundaries of the territory of the Russian Federation, including underground space and minerals, energy and other resources contained in the subsoil, are state property.”

Today in Russia, individual oligarchs have the right to use natural rent, and this does not climb into any gates, - notes one of the authors of the bill, a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Valery Rashkin. - This is unfair, abnormal, wrong. Moreover, the oligarchs also export the lion's share of this money abroad, which directly harms the Russian economy.

There is another moment. The Russian economy continues to stagnate - despite the optimistic assurances of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev that the crisis is over. The crisis, I believe, is gradually deepening, and there is no end in sight - at least under the current government.

In order to support the economy in such a situation, to give impetus to its development, it is necessary to increase the purchasing power of citizens of the Russian Federation. The Communists, I note, are not the first to talk about this - extensive foreign practice testifies to the effectiveness of this approach.

To increase purchasing power, people need to give something. Considering that in fairness natural resources in Russia should belong not to a few, but to all citizens, we proposed a mechanism for the budgetary redistribution of part of the natural rent.

Having received this money, citizens will go to shops to buy goods, enterprises will receive working capital, and the economy will breathe easier.

"SP": - But in this case, the budget will receive less revenue, and the financing of state programs will be in jeopardy. Is not it so?

To prevent this from happening, we introduced two more bills, which, if passed, are guaranteed to cover the income gap. We propose, firstly, to nationalize the production of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, and secondly, to introduce a progressive scale of taxation. According to the calculations of our economists, these measures will bring an additional minimum of 4 trillion rubles to the budget. rubles. This is more than enough to compensate for the decrease in revenue from natural rent.

Taken together, I think these measures will make it possible to move the situation in the Russian economy off the dead center and push it towards a way out of the crisis.

The idea of ​​distributing income from natural rent is deeply populist, says Dr. economic sciences, professor, chief Researcher Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikita Krichevsky. - In Russia, oil revenues directly go to the federal budget in the form of taxes from oil and gas companies, various fees, and customs duties. In the future, these funds are redistributed to all recipients - regardless of whether they take part in the extraction of natural resources or not.

This money is used to maintain defense capabilities, to the law enforcement system, to develop education and healthcare, and social programs. In the end, this money is spent on paying pensions through subsidies and transfers. federal budget Pension fund.

"SP": - Why is another distribution system bad - the one offered by the communists?

Oil and gas revenues make up, on average, one third of all federal budget revenues. What the communists are proposing will lead to a cut in budget revenues, and will immediately jeopardize the implementation of the programs necessary for the country, the need for which is recognized by society as a whole.

On the other hand, such measures, I believe, encourage the population of the country to follow the model of consumer behavior. And this is dangerous. Today, for example, a citizen receives an income from oil and gas rent of 10 thousand rubles. And in a year or two, due to changes in the market situation and external circumstances - for example, tougher sanctions - this amount will be reduced to 5,000.

And now dissatisfaction is initiated in society - both by the state and its policies. And this will very quickly lead not even to instability, but to mass unrest, and to the need to correct the principle of redistribution of oil and gas revenues in the direction of the previous order. That is the order that exists now.

On the eve of the main elections of the country, there are interesting news from the world of parliament and government. Representatives of the systemic opposition from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation proposed to give income from natural resources population. The proposal is not new, it often hovers in the air like "distribute and divide everything."

Only to whom will it benefit more and will it bring at all?

On the one hand, they say that the revenues from the oil industry go to the benefit of the people. An example of this is shareware social program states, defense industry, regional development, pensions. But here they will immediately say that a lot of things from the social sphere are of insufficient quality and are still paid, but it is precisely from this kind of money that people would pay their expenses for medicine, education, etc. and let them not be nominally free.

Example number two. In the north and in the remote corners of our homeland there are a lot of disappearing indigenous peoples. According to the status of small peoples and owners of local land, they are fairly paid money from the state budget. Somewhere even good and worthy. In this connection, a large mass degrades, becomes an inveterate drunkard and noticeably thins out. Because you don't have to work. Will this not happen to citizens who will be paid with money, not goods, for the wealth of their homeland?

You can approach and analyze this topic from different angles. Lots of pluses and minuses.

On September 20, 2017, deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation submitted to the State Duma a bill on the distribution among Russian citizens of part of the budget revenues from payments received from mining. The document was published in the database of the State Duma.

The project primarily concerns officially working Russians and pensioners. According to the proposal of the deputies, for the first financial year authorized bodies will have to distribute 20% of federal budget revenues from payments received in connection with the extraction of minerals from subsoil users. This amount will also include taxes and fees.

It is assumed that for each subsequent year 2% more will be distributed than for the previous one. The Russian government, in turn, must establish the procedure for obtaining a share by a citizen.

The document also defines the categories of persons who are entitled to receive such income. According to the project, people who have worked for at least nine months in the current financial year with the inclusion of this period in the length of service can apply for a share. Russians who were registered with the employment center, but did not receive unemployment benefits, can also count on payments. In addition, pensioners with "at least five years of work experience" can receive a share.

Government against

The document received a negative opinion from the government, as the changes are beyond the scope of the subject legal regulation subsoil law, in which they are included. The Cabinet of Ministers recalled that the distribution of federal budget revenues is related to the regulation of budget legislation.

In addition, part of the funds received from payments for the use of natural resources is spent on ensuring the functions of the state, such as the protection of the rights and freedoms of a citizen, the formation Reserve Fund and FNB.

"Thus, the right of every citizen to receive income from the use of natural resources is realized through the listed state expenditures for providing benefits and payments guaranteed by the Constitution of Russia and federal laws", the government said in a statement.

Growth of revenues to the budget

In June, the State Duma approved in the first reading amendments to the law on the federal budget of Russia for 2017, which included more positive indicators in the country's main financial document.

First of all, this concerns GDP in the amount of 92.9 trillion rubles, which exceeds previous forecasts by almost six trillion.
The planned revenues of the treasury, according to the document, will grow by 1.191 trillion rubles and amount to 14.679 trillion.

An additional trillion rubles to the budget will bring a higher-than-forecast oil price, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

It is expected that budget revenues will be higher due to economic growth: the department assumes that in 2017 the growth of Russian GDP will not be 0.6%, as previously predicted, but 2%.

Director of the National Energy Security Fund, political scientist Konstantin Simonov commented on this initiative. According to him, such myths have existed in society for more than a decade.

"The money that the state spends is all oil and gas money. A myth is being formed that these funds do not reach us. If they are distributed among people, then all expenses will have to be paid - for education, for medicine," the expert explained.

Let's take a look at foreign experience:

In Norway, oil is declared the property of the people, like all the country's natural resources. Money from oil revenues goes to social programs and the Common Welfare Fund. And Norway gradually began to turn into one of the richest countries in the world, where GDP per capita reaches 40 thousand dollars. Over 30 years, Norway's income amounted to 454.5 billion dollars.

The personal account of each Norwegian receives deductions from the received profit from oil revenues. To date, these deductions amount to more than $100,000 for every Norwegian. For each child, at birth, a bank account is opened, which receives at least 3 thousand dollars of income from income tax.

For four years in a row, the UN has ranked Norway in first place in the world in "human development".
Unlike Russia, the Norwegians proceed from the fact that natural resources, oil and gas are not property individuals, individual companies, but the whole society, and the future of the country depends on their reasonable use.

The Arab countries also do not lag behind their European counterpart. For example, in the UAE, the state opens an account for each citizen, and by the age of majority he has about one hundred thousand dollars on it. In addition, every citizen of this country has the right to choose any university in the world to study, and the state will pay all expenses. In Kuwait, an account is opened for only three thousand dollars, but here you can get an interest-free loan in the amount of $220,000 for housing construction, and the state pays good “salaries” to housewives and minors.

In Saudi Arabia, they follow the same pattern, plus there is completely free medicine and education, which, thanks to generous funding, have risen to a fairly high level.

According to the newspaper Finansovye Izvestiya on December 16, 2010, Russia ranks seventh in the world in terms of proven oil reserves, which are estimated at more than 74 billion barrels (approximately 10 billion tons). According to the documents prepared for the meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, stocks Russian oil produced by more than 50%, and current level production (about 500 million tons of oil per year) can last for 20-30 years, periodically increasing due to the commissioning of new projects and decreasing due to the depletion of old fields.

It is difficult to judge the objectivity of these figures, since according to Article 5, paragraph 2 of the Law of the Russian Federation N5485-1 "On State Secrets" dated July 21, 1993, information on the volume of reserves in the subsoil, extraction, production and consumption of strategic types of minerals constitutes a state secret. minerals of the Russian Federation, including the balance reserves of oil and gas dissolved in it.

And now the production volumes per person are comparable, for the sake of completeness.

For example:

Kuwait
Production - 2858.7 thousand barrels / day
Residents - 3.2 million
Total per person - 0.9 barrels per day

Russia
Production - 10111.7 thousand barrels / day
Residents - 146.8 million
Total per person - 0.07 barrels per day
The difference is 12.8 times.

What do you think, is there a discussion of just such a distribution of income from natural resources in our country?

Sources:

At the beginning of the autumn session of the State Duma, a group of deputies from the Communist Party introduced a bill on the distribution in equal shares among the majority of Russians of a part of the budget revenues associated with the extraction of minerals. The initiative caused a lot of noise - both in the ranks of supporters and especially opponents. The party was accused of populism, and of distributing money "for free", and of supporting parasitism. We understand the bill and answer allegations and questions.

What does the Communist Party offer?

We propose to distribute part of the federal budget revenues from mining among the citizens of Russia. We believe that every citizen of the Russian Federation who has worked for at least nine months a year or was registered with the employment service and did not receive unemployment benefits, as well as pensioners with at least five years of work experience, has the right to receive their share.

How about "they"?

The practice of distributing oil revenues is not populism, but the norm for states that care about their citizens. In the leading oil-producing countries, as a rule, each person owns a share in the national wealth. For example, in Kuwait, 10% of all income received from the sale of oil and oil products is annually transferred to the Future Generations Fund. From this fund, contributions for the birth of a child, bonuses for a wedding, loans for housing construction and much more are financed. In the United Arab Emirates, the government also opens an account for each child, and by the age of 18, about 100 thousand US dollars are collected there.

Even the US state of Alaska has its own fund. Last year, local residents received $2,072 each.

Related materials

Moreover, more Western countries, even without significant oil and gas revenues, are ready to pay their citizens some basic income. So, in Finland, it was decided from 2017 to pay 560 euros per month for two thousand adult citizens for two years, and, if the experiment is successful, to establish an unconditional income for all citizens in the amount of 800 euros (with the simultaneous abolition of social benefits). The same can be said about experimental payments in Germany and the Netherlands (of 1,000 and 900 euros, respectively), as well as in Canada (the amount has not yet been determined).

Why give away money when you can use it to support real sector economy?

The country is in crisis, the economy is deteriorating. Even according to official data from Rosstat, the number of poor people in Russia is increasing and now stands at 22 million people. Jobs are being cut, wages are falling, prices are rising, and the purchasing power of the population is falling. And if no one buys anything, then production will not develop. This vicious circle can be broken only by increasing purchasing power. Our bill aims to do just that.

Will this law lead to the development of parasitism and social dependency?

In this regard, I recall the words of Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets: “Unfortunately, our labor market is practically not legitimized today. The sectors that we can see and understand employ only 48 million people. Everyone else is not clear where they are busy, what they are doing, how they are busy.

Our bill proposes to pay money to those who work officially.

How much do you plan to pay?

According to the bill, in the first year after its adoption, 20 percent of oil revenues should be distributed among the Russians, for each subsequent year - two percent more than in the previous one. Thus, each citizen who meets the criteria of the bill can receive about ten thousand rubles in 2018.

Where to get money?

Naturally, one of the main questions we are asked is where to get the money that will compensate for the federal budget's expenses from sending part of the oil revenues to citizens. The Communist Party proposed the answer to this question a long time ago. There are several bills in the Duma: on the state monopoly on alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, on the introduction progressive scale taxation. The fight against corruption is also a lot of work. Half of the annual budget is stolen - and I didn't say that, it was said by Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, speaking in the State Duma.

Well, in the future, the positive impact of the proposed law compensates for the costs.

It's time

The government gave a negative opinion on the project, stating that the oil money goes "to ensure all the functions of the state." Thus, the state believes that "the right of every citizen to receive income from the use of natural resources is realized through the listed state expenses for providing benefits and payments guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation and federal laws." You can say a lot of beautiful words about the social responsibility of the state and its concern for its citizens, but the minimum wage is lower living wage, the amount of benefits for children from one and a half to three years is 50 rubles a month and 22 million people below the poverty line speak for themselves.

I believe that the time has come for Russia to take the first step towards a society of social justice by adopting our draft law.

Valery RASHKIN, State Duma deputy.

Published in the Pravda newspaper on October 5, 2017, No. 110 (30607)