The state, like any economic entity, annually adopts a budget, which includes revenue and expenditure. In accordance with the classification of income and expenses, they provide for the receipt of funds in the state treasury, the costs of maintaining the state apparatus and the fulfillment of the obligations of the state. In the event that the revenue side of the budget exceeds the expenditure side, they speak of a budget surplus.
The centralization of monetary resources in the hands of the authorities, as the calculations of economists show, has a negative effect on the activities of economic entities. At the same time, funds are diverted that could be used to modernize production, switch to new technologies, and purchase equipment. Therefore, the budget surplus is not a planned value, provided for in its preparation. The legislation of many countries of the world explicitly prohibits this. The legislation of the Russian Federation provides that budgets of any level: federal, regional or regional and local are drawn up and approved without a budget surplus. If in the process of drawing up the budget a surplus is revealed, then the budget commissions are obliged by this amount to reduce the proceeds from the sale of state property, the sale of other federal reserves and reserves. To eliminate the surplus, expenditures are increased in the form of subsidies to budgets of other levels and amounts received to pay off the state debt. If the above measures to eliminate the budget surplus are deemed inappropriate, then, as a rule, appropriate changes are introduced in tax legislation and tax rates are reduced. The surplus will not be an unambiguously positive phenomenon even if it is formed in the course of budget execution during the year. It can be considered positive only when the envisaged expenditure obligations are fulfilled by 100%. In this case, the funds can be used to create a cash reserve and to cover prospective expenses that are planned to be made next year. In the case when the budget surplus arose due to underfunding, favorable market conditions, economists do not attribute such an excess of the revenue side over expenditures to positive phenomena. This situation requires urgent adjustment and elimination of the resulting positive balance of public funds.
