Russian budget's extra oil, gas revenues for April to be around 200 bln rubles, similar to March shortfalls - finance minister

MOSCOW. May 4 (Interfax) - Russia's budget will receive an additional amount of around 200 billion rubles for April 2026 due to high oil prices following a similar shortfall in the budget's oil and gas revenues in March this year, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Sunday.

"We are expecting them [additional oil and gas revenues]. But I'd like to clarify straight away that the income and shortfall levels over the past two months are the same. [...] It's around 200 billion rubles," Siluanov told Vesti news program journalist Pavel Zarubin.

The Finance Ministry earlier estimated a shortfall in oil and gas revenues in March 2026 at 234.3 billion rubles.

At the end of February, even before the surge in volatility in commodity markets due to the military conflict in Iran, Siluanov said that the government, amid a shortfall in oil and gas revenues, was considering the possibility of lowering the base price in the fiscal rule. Shortly thereafter, the Finance Ministry announced a decision not to conduct operations for the purchase or sale of foreign currency and gold on the domestic market in March due to the planned change in the baseline oil price parameter in the fiscal rule. Following this, a corresponding government resolution was issued, according to which operations under the fiscal rule were suspended until July 1. However, the Finance Ministry then decided to resume these operations in May "in order to increase the stability and predictability of domestic economic conditions and reduce the impact of volatile energy market conditions on the Russian economy and financial system."

Operations deferred for March and April will be taken into account when determining the size of operations in May 2026, the ministry said.

Siluanov also said that, according to the Finance Ministry's estimates, the level of March sales and April purchases would be the same.