State Duma deputy Anzhelika Glazkova (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) proposed the introduction of a mechanism under which part of the income from mineral exports would be transferred to Russian citizens. The MP suggested creating a Social Justice Fund for this purpose. The initiative is described here invoiceWhich Glazkova introduced to the lower house of parliament.
According to the document, the fund should be operational from January 1, 2026, and its capital will be renewed annually by at least 15% of the National Welfare Fund (NWF) funds. Payments from the fund are planned to be made quarterly, and Russians with more than 15 years of work experience will be able to benefit from this right.
How will the fund work?
Citizens will be offered to open accounts in banks in which the state has a majority share. The management of the fund will be undertaken by the chairman of the board of directors appointed by the President of Russia. The activities of the fund will be monitored by the supervisory board. As a successful example, Glazkova cited the practice of the state of Alaska, where for about 50 years the population has received part of the income from the sale of oil.
The government did not support the proposed bill, calling it excessive. The official review noted that the redistribution of funds from the National Welfare Fund could undermine the Fund’s core function – securing citizens’ pension rights. In addition, the implementation of the initiative may lead to rapid depletion of the fund, which will make it difficult for the budget to react quickly to possible crisis situations.
Alaska example
The state of Alaska has a Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) program that pays residents annually a portion of revenues from natural resource extraction. According to the data, the per capita payment in 2024 was $1,702. website Alaska Department of Revenue. These funds help offset the high cost of living in the region.
The PFD program was established in 1982 and has been providing payments to Alaskans on an annual basis ever since. The payout varies depending on the fund’s earnings and may vary from year to year. For example, the payment amount in 2023 made $1,312 per person, a 40% decrease from the previous year.
The volume of the Russian piggy bank decreased
With data The Ministry of Finance announced that as of September 1, 2024, the volume of the National Welfare Fund was 12.166 trillion rubles (133.4 billion dollars), which corresponds to 6.4% of the GDP projected for 2024.
As of August 1, 2024, the volume of the National Welfare Fund amounted to 12.277 trillion rubles. Thus, the decrease amounted to 111.7 billion rubles.
The volume of liquid assets of the fund as of September 1 was 4.854 billion rubles or 53,236 million dollars (2.5% of the projected GDP for 2024). In addition, the exchange rate difference between the assets of the National Welfare Fund in foreign currency and the revaluation of the value of gold in which the fund funds were invested in the period from January 1 to August 31 amounted to 328,261 million rubles.
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Source: Gazeta

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