MOSCOW (Reuters) – Social payments to pensioners and soldiers announced by President Vladimir Putin at the weekend before an election next month could cost the budget more than 500 billion roubles ($6.75 billion), Andrei Makarov, a senior lawmaker, said on Monday.
Putin on Sunday said the government would make one-off payments to military personnel and pensioners this year to help them cope with a sharper-than-expected rise in inflation.
The payments will amount to 15,000 roubles for military personnel and 10,000 roubles for pensioners.
He made the announcement ahead of elections to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, in September.
“Initial calculations show that processing the payments will require more than 500 billion roubles,” said Makarov, the head of the Duma’s budget committee.
The website of the ruling United Russia party carried his comments.
Makarov said payments would be financed from additional budget revenue.
The Russian central bank is likely to view these payments as similar to a one-off payment of 5,000 roubles in 2017 and something that could potentially accelerate inflation in the short term, VTB Capital said.
The Ministry of Finance did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
($1 = 74.0560 roubles)
(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya, writing by Anna Rzhevkina; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
