Penza, 20 November 2015. PenzaNews. The joint debt of Penza region municipalities has surpassed 5 billion rubles, announced Marina Zabara, first assistant Minister of Finance in the region, during the 31st regular session of the Penza region Legislative Assembly held on Friday, November 20.

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The key question was asked by Georgy Kamnev, first secretary of the CPRF regional committee, deputy for the regional parliament, after she presented a draft for the 2016 budget law.

“You mentioned payback on municipal loans as one of the sources of income. Could you please tell us about the situation with municipal loans? How big are they? Do municipalities pay back the budget loans?” he said.

In reply, Marina Zabara explained that the current total debt of municipalities is about 5 billion 300 million rubles.

“It is important to note that the current year provides 500 million rubles on provision of budget loans to help cover deficit of municipal budgets. Moreover, to support budgets of municipalities due to the tough situation they experience, we have restructured municipal debts to the Penza region budget. About 467 million rubles of budget debt was discarded. The remainder of the debt as of September 1 was restructured into 2020,” said the first assistant Minister of Finance in the region.

This measure helped municipalities adjust their budgets in accordance with the norms set by the law, she stressed.

“This also helped reduce debt burden for the current year, and subsequently for the next five years. The current situation is like this: this year – right now – about 300 million rubles was transferred to the Penza region budget as municipal debt coverage,” Marina Zabara added.