«Lack of budgetary funds»
The State Duma suspended until January 1, 2025 the provisions on indexation of salaries of civil servants, judges, assistants to deputies and senators, police officers and military personnel. In essence, the state has denied another financial increase to the social categories closest to it — those who are called upon to guard its interests.
The bill affects the annual indexation of salaries, prescribed in several laws — “On the State Civil Service”, “On the Status of Judges”, “On the Status of a Senator and the Status of a State Duma Deputy”, “On Social Guarantees for Employees of Internal Affairs Bodies”, “On Monetary Allowances for Military Personnel”. As the State Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation noted in its conclusion, the measure correlates with the government’s decision to skip wage indexation in 2024 by 4.5% (forecast inflation rate) for persons holding public positions. An exception will be representatives of the public sector — teachers, doctors, social workers, theater workers.
In addition, deputies recalled the increase from October 1, 2023 by 5.5% in the salaries of employees of federal government, budgetary and autonomous institutions, as well as employees of federal government agencies and civilian personnel of military units. We are talking about approximately 600 thousand people, with an average monthly salary of 70 thousand rubles. In 2022, they carried out indexation at the level of 4 percent.
And in 2021, the authorities refused to increase salaries for civil servants (except for the military) in order to save money. This was supposed to bring 2.9 billion rubles to the treasury. “They collected threads from all measures in order to balance the budget,” explained then the head of the Ministry of Finance Anton Siluanov. The state also abandoned indexation during the period of low oil prices in 2014–2016.
“The decision, of course, attracts attention,” says Alexey Zubets, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. – It is due to a lack of budgetary funds, I don’t see any other explanation.
And it is addressed, first of all, to police officers and military personnel who are not located in the Northern Military District zone. Like, if you want to earn money, get 200 thousand a month, join the participants in the special operation. Otherwise, please be content with what you already have. What can they do? The choice for them is small.
For example, if a judge’s salary is not indexed, he can either resign himself or become a lawyer, at best. But not everyone will decide to do this.”