Цифровой рубль начнут использовать в бюджетной системе России с октября 2025 года

The State Duma approved in the first reading a bill on the phased introduction of the digital ruble into the budget process. This new form of national currency, existing in parallel with cash and non-cash money, will begin to be used for government payments in pilot mode as early as October 2024.

Image source сгенерировано нейросетью Grok

According to the project, the Federal Treasury will open a special digital ruble account with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The Treasury will send instructions to the Central Bank to carry out operations, and the regulator will make transfers on the digital ruble platform.

The pilot phase will start on October 1, 2024. At the first stage, the technology will be tested for certain types of budget expenditures: subsidies, payment of state orders, and social payments to citizens. The specific list of operations will be determined by the government later.

Full-scale implementation is planned for 2025–2027: for example, from 2025, the digital ruble will become available for all federal expenditures; from 2026, regional and municipal budgets will be able to use it. Also, from this time, the possibility of paying taxes and payments to the budget with digital rubles will open for companies and citizens.

A representative of the Ministry of Finance, Alexei Lavrov, emphasized the security of the Central Bank platform for storing and transferring digital rubles. He also noted that the current lack of opportunity to use this form of currency in the budget process limits the rights of users.

By the second reading, it is planned to refine the mechanism for managing unclaimed funds. The State Duma Committee on Budget pointed out the need for a clear procedure for returning digital rubles remaining unclaimed (for example, due to errors in the details or liquidation of the recipient) to a single treasury account in order to eliminate the risk of them "hanging" in the treasury accounts.

The introduction of the digital ruble into the budget process can dramatically increase the speed, transparency, and efficiency of government financial transactions. Instant transfers between the treasury, budgetary institutions, suppliers, and citizens will reduce payment execution times, reduce operating costs, and strengthen control over spending.