The Russian State Duma, or the lower house of parliament, passed the draft 2006 federal budget Thursday which envisages a budget surplus of 27.7 billion US dollars.

The State Duma voted 331-95 in favor of the budget in the first reading, with one abstention, according to the Interfax news agency.

Under the budget, revenues are expected to amount to 5.046 trillion rubles (180.2 billion dollars) and spending is to top 4.270 trillion rubles (152.5 billion dollars), thus producing a budget surplus of 776 billion rubles (27.7 billion dollars).

The budget was drafted on the estimated GDP growth of 5.8 percent and an inflation rate of 7.0-8.5 percent.

Foreign debt is expected to see a drop of 167.8 billion rubles (6.0 billion dollars) while internal debt will grow by 206.0 billion rubles (7.4 billion dollars).

Yury Vasilyev, head of the Duma Budget and Tax Committee, told the Duma session that the estimated increase of the federal budget surplus over 2005 worries lawmakers.

"Duma deputies have pointed to the inaccuracy of the key indicators many times," Vasilyev said, adding the inflation rate will likely exceed the forecast figure.

Source: Xinhua