Determination of budget policy priorities in the field of financing expenses in the regions

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to formate an approach to assessing the priority of regional budget expenses, which allows the government authorities of the Russian Federation to take these priorities into account when allocating transfers from the federal budget, and the authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to pursue a coordinated policy in terms of ensuring socio-economic development using budgetary instruments. The novelty of the research consists in the development and testing of the author's methodological approach to the analysis of the priorities of the budget policy of the subjects of the Russian Federation and the scientific justification of the prioritization of budget expenses at the regional level. The object of the study is the budget documents of the subjects of the Russian Federation located in the Central Federal District. The research used methods of descriptive statistics, regulatory and content analysis of legislative and strategic documents, as well as system-structural and dynamic analysis. As a result, it was found that to form a reasonable approach to determining the actual priorities of the budget policy of the subjects of the Russian Federation, it is not enough to analyze program documents, since the actual priorities often do not coincide with the stated ones. To obtain a complete and objective picture of the priorities of the region's development, it is necessary to rely on the indicators of budget performance reports for the last 3-5 years, which allows for more efficient pooling of resources at various levels of government and contributes to the efficient use of budget funds. The testing of the methodology using the example of the subjects of the Russian Federation located in the Central Federal District made it possible to identify the main priorities of these regions in spending budget funds and confirmed the conclusion that these priorities often do not match the full list of those indicated in the relevant program documents.