Tatarstan starts the year with zero salary arrears

Arrears reached 47,6 million rubles a year ago

Tatarstan turned out to be one of 32 Russian regions with no salary arrears as of 1 January 2023. The republic has managed to avoid this for the last six months, Realnoe Vremya calculated by examining official statistics.

There have been no salary arrears in Tatarstan since 1 July 2022. To compare, a month earlier, it was 41,4 million rubles. By early last year, it was 47,6 million, as of 1 October 2021, it totalled 48,5 million.

Besides Tatarstan in the Volga Federal District, salary arrears by early 2023 are absent in Bashkiria, Mordovia, Kirov, Orenburg, Samara and Ulyanovsk oblasts, that’s to say, more than in half regions of the district. The biggest sum owed to workers was registered in Saratov Oblast — 12,3 million rubles. Salary arrears in Penza Oblast and Mari El are assessed at 5,4 million, 1,7 million in Perm Krai and 1 million rubles in Udmurtia and Chuvashia.

The smallest sum of unpaid salaries in the Volga area is in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. As of 1 January, it amounted to 400,000 rubles.

The total salary arrears in Russia in general in early 2023 was 642,8 million rubles. Over the month, it decreased by 37,5%, or 386 million.

Not as smooth as official statistics presents it

Even though the official statistics have said for six months that there are no salary arrears in Tatarstan, security agencies receive messages about salary debts paid by employers from time to time.

More than 3,000 Tatarstan residents managed to receive salaries in 2022 only after bailiffs’ intervention. They were paid a total of 139,2 million rubles. For instance, bailiffs of Leninogorsk District, Tatarstan, claimed nearly 47,5 million rubles from one of the employers — over 500 workers could get the money earned.

According to the official statistics, the average salary in Tatarstan grew by 16,6% from January to October 2022 compared to the same period last year, to 50,287 rubles. In this indicator, the republic became a leader among other regions of the Volga Federal District.