The State Duma amends Budget Code of Russia to allow higher diamond purchases by Gokhran

The State Duma approved in the second reading an amendment to the Budget Code of Russia allowing the government to increase diamond purchases by Gokhran in 2020 at the expense of the federal budget, TASS reported on Wednesday.
“The amendment gives the government the right to increase purchases of diamonds by Gokhran of Russia as part of amending the budget breakdown. This amendment is due to the need to fulfill the order of the Russian Federation President issued at the request of Aisen Nikolaev, Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) to increase diamond purchases by Gokhran of Russia due to the difficult situation in the international diamond markets and the need to support production in the republic, as Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev explained earlier,” the news agency said.
Following a decrease in sales suffered by ALROSA due to the coronavirus pandemic, Yakutia’s budget may fail to receive 10 to 20 billion rubles by the end of 2020, TASS said citing an earlier statement of Aisen Nikolaev, who also said that Gokhran could buy from ALROSA rough diamonds worth from $ 0.5 billion to $ 1 billion, as the company needs support in the face of a downturn in the global diamond market and the difficult situation in the global economy as a whole amid the coronavirus pandemic.