The Verkhovna Rada has adopted at the first reading the draft law on the state budget for 2022.
The corresponding decision at a plenary session on Tuesday was supported by 273 deputies with the required 226 votes.
As reported, on October 20, the Verkhovna Rada began to consider the draft state budget for 2022 and adopted it as a basis, after which the parliament began discussing separate amendments of deputies.
MPS propose to amend the state budget for 2021 and distribute UAH 38.75 billion of additional receipts, including UAH 12 billion for subsidies and UAH 15 billion for the repair of national roads.
Bill No. 6052 was registered by a group of MPs in parliament on Tuesday.
According to an explanatory note to the bill posted on the parliament’s website, it is proposed to increase receipts from corporate income tax – by UAH 30 billion, VAT on imports – by UAH 6 billion, VAT on goods manufactured in Ukraine – by UAH 2 billion, fee paid during the legal process for establishing ownership to cars – by UAH 0.75 billion.
At the expense of these additional receipts, the MPs propose to increase spending on subsidies by UAH 12 billion, to UAH 47.295 billion, according to the bill.
In addition, the MPs propose to provide for an additional amount of funding for the road infrastructure in the amount of UAH 15 billion.
“In particular, in 2021, it is planned to carry out repair and construction work on a total length of 4,500 km of state highways, but the existing funding is currently insufficient to implement these plans,” the authors of the bill said in the explanatory note.
The bill also proposes to send additional funding in the amount of UAH 2.5 billion for the construction of social and cultural facilities, transport infrastructure. Thus, it is proposed to increase the amount of subventions from the state budget to local budgets by the indicated amount.
In addition to this, the bill proposes to allocate UAH 1.5 billion from additional receipts for the construction of projects within the framework of the Big Construction state program.
Another UAH 1 billion is proposed to be used to pay off debts and pay salaries to employees of state-run mines. In addition, the MPs propose to allocate UAH 556 million to replenish the charter capital of the state-owned enterprises Boryspil International Airport, Ukraine state aviation enterprise and Ukrservice of the Transport Ministry.
Amendments to the current state budget also imply the following directions: UAH 282 million to provide housing for 215 internally displaced persons who defended the sovereignty of Ukraine, UAH 280.5 million for timely settlements with dismissed military personnel, UAH 176.8 million for providing prisons with food and settlements for utilities, UAH 86.9 million for a budget program for the development of an emergency medical care system and modernization of the material and technical base of healthcare institutions, as well as UAH 10 million for additional circulations of the Uriadovy Kurier newspaper.
The Ministry of Finance has proposed that spending on health care is budgeted at 4.5% of GDP, on education at 7.2% in the consolidated document for 2022, the ministry said on its website on Friday.
“We plan to budget spending on healthcare at 4.5% of GDP for next year,” the press service of Deputy Finance Minister Roman Yermolychev reported, citing him speaking after a meeting with representatives of trade unions and employers regarding budgeting for 2022.
At the same time, Yermolychev emphasized the need to improve the efficiency of the use of funds not only in medicine, but also in education.
“In the field of education, funds should work for education. Next year, it is planned about 7.2% of GDP according to the consolidated budget. We assume the possibility of updating the material and technical base of schools and supporting the organization of high-quality meals for students of general secondary educational institutions,” the Deputy Minister of Finance said.
As reported, when preparing the state budget for 2021, ex-Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov insisted on the need to budget 5% of GDP on health care. In turn, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said that an increase in financing of the Ministry of Health to 5% may occur in 2023 thanks to a gradual increase in this dynamics from 4.2% of GDP budgeted in 2021.
The revenues of the state budget of Ukraine in July 2021 amounted to UAH 92.58 billion, which is 6.9% more than the planned figure and 34% less than in July 2020, according to the data of the State Treasury Service.
According to the data released by the service, the general fund of the state budget in July was replenished with UAH 75.57 billion, which is 2.2% more than the plan and 30.4% lower than the figure for July 2020.
As for the indicators of budget revenues for January-July, in 2021 they were exceeded by 7% of the plan and were 16.3% higher than last year’s level for the specified period.
In general, over the seven months of this year, the state budget received UAH 684.5 billion, including almost UAH 581.5 billion in the general fund, which is 4.6% more than the plan and 14.3% more than in January-July 2020.
The Treasury said customs in July this year brought UAH 33 billion, which is 0.5% more than the expected figure and 29.3% more than in the same month in 2020. In January-July of this year, customs revenues amounted to UAH 207 billion, which is 4.1% more than the indicative of the Ministry of Finance.
Tax revenues in July brought to the budget UAH 39.5 billion, this amount is 4.2% more than the planned level and by 33.4% – than last year.
In January-July 2021, tax revenues brought almost UAH 330.5 billion to the budget and were 6% more than the expected figure and by 10.4% than in January-July 2020.
According to the State Treasury, VAT refunds last month decreased slightly to UAH 11.15 billion compared to UAH 11.99 billion in June and UAH 12.9 billion in May.
According to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, the approved documents provide for the reduction of the budget deficit by almost half and the return of this indicator to the planned 3% in 2023.
“The public debt is planned to be reduced to less than 50% of GDP,” Shmyhal said.
At the same time, from 2023, Ukraine will be able to enter a stable trend of economic development by 5% per year, he said.
The Nova Poshta group of companies paid UAH 5 billion in taxes and fees to state and local budgets in 2020, which is 20% more than in 2019, the company’s press service said on Friday.
According to the press service, over the past year Nova Poshta rose from 27th to 19th place in the rating of the largest taxpayers in Ukraine.
Over the past three years, Nova Poshta has paid more than UAH 12 billion in taxes to the budgets of all levels and funds.
The press service said that the company operates within the framework of Ukrainian legislation, pays officially declared salaries to employees and provides them with medical insurance. In addition, Nova Poshta helps hospitals and socially vulnerable groups of the population.
“We do not stay away from life in Ukraine and actively help those who are in need: hospitals and universities, volunteers and socially vulnerable groups of the population. We care of what country we live and work in,” Chief Financial Officer of the group Petro Fokov said.
The Nova Poshta group of companies includes, in particular, the companies Nova Poshta, NP Logistic, NovaPay and Nova Poshta Global.
In 2019, the group transferred more than UAH 4 billion of taxes and fees to the Ukrainian budget.
