MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti) - Wage arrears in Russia fell by more than 50% in 2005, while the wage debt to employees of the budget-dependent sector fell by 3.7 times, a government source said Wednesday.

According to the source, the wage debt in state-financed health, educational and cultural institutions was 0.4% of the monthly wage fund in late 2005.

The source said the country's labor watchdog had conducted more than 225,000 checks last year, which revealed 2.1 million violations of the labor code. Most of the infringements were removed within set deadlines, the source said.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, wage arrears stood at 12 billion rubles ($419 million) as of January 1, 2005, which fell by more than 50% over the year, reaching 5.8 billion rubles ($202 million) on January 1, 2006.

According to Zhukov, in 2005 labor inspectors ordered employers to pay workers more than 12.5 billion rubles (about $437 million) in overdue wages.