25 May 2004 12:15
Chukotka to have "golden credit" debt restructured - govt.
MOSCOW. May 25 (Interfax) - The Finance Ministry believes that Russia's Chukotka autonomous district will be
able to have its "golden credit" arrears of more than 6 billion rubles restructured, a senior ministry
official said on Tuesday.
Anton Siluanov, head of the ministry's department for budgetary relations between various tiers of government,
put Chukotka's current total debt at 8.4 billion rubles.
"We believe that [the 'golden credit'] debt will be settled under the law on the federal budget for
2004, which makes provision for such a right, and under a government statute that approves regulations on the
restructuring of such arrears," he told Interfax.
He said his ministry had drafted a government statute to lay down regulations on restructuring the arrears of
regional administrations and that the proposed document was expected to be approved within a month.
Russian regions "will have the right to have such arrears restructured for a long period," he said. He said
Chukotka was not the only region to have "golden credit" arrears.
Also, he said that Chukotka's financial health had been improving in recent years. The district's own
revenues, excluding federal aid, increased nearly 18% in 2003 in nominal terms to 5.3 billion rubles and Russian regions
showed roughly the same average increase in their own revenues for 2003, he said. [RU EUROPE EEU EMRG LOA ECI] as aw
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