Prospects for gratuitous and reimbursable allocation of budget funds to electricity market participants

The purpose of the study. Currently, the scientific literature does not pay enough attention to the issue of the specifics of the use of budgetary funds in the electricity market, which account for a significant part of the expenditures of the entire budgetary system of the Russian Federation. There are also no works related to the consideration of the problem of effective control over the use of budgetary funds in the electricity market, taking into account the specifics of the market and industry specifics. The article discusses problematic issues of gratuitous use of budgetary funds in the electricity market, namely subsidies, and also discusses the prospects for expanding the reimbursable use of budgetary funds as treasury infrastructure loans. The article suggests mechanisms aimed at more efficient use of subsidies in the electricity market with a proposal for a way to control the expenditure of such funds. The author defines the term «energy audit», which is absent in the legislation, as the dominant form of state financial control in the electricity market and suggests expanding the scope of this form of control. The author also suggests, due to difficult economic conditions and the reluctance of private investors to invest in the construction of electric power facilities in the territories of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhia regions, as well as regions of Southern Russia, the Far North and the border region, to extend the practice of applying treasury infrastructure loans to the electric power industry. This approach will make it possible to finance large infrastructure projects in the electric power sector on a return basis. The author suggests an effective mechanism for the distribution of reimbursable and gratuitous use of budgetary funds in the electricity market.