Financing for the Education and Science Ministry of Ukraine increased by 14% in the draft national budget of Ukraine for 2020, prepared by the government for second reading, to UAH 131.483 billion, as compared with 2019, according to bill No. 2000 dated September 15 amended for second reading.
In particular, UAH 44.331 billion will be allocated for the apparatus of the Education and Science Ministry, of which UAH 134.9 million will be spent on management and administration in the spheres of education and science, UAH 107.6 million – on organization of work of the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance, National Agency for Qualification, education ombudsman, state attestation and accreditation and educational institutions, UAH 200 million – on professional (vocational) training of national significance, and UAH 1.162 billion – on research and development at higher education establishments and scientific institutions.
The draft national budget of Ukraine for 2020, prepared for second reading, provides for UAH 73.7 billion to finance road infrastructure, which is 36% more than in 2019. According to Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy, the budget for 2020 doubles the cost of road safety to UAH 3.17 billion, and increases by five times financing for the development of airfield complexes, to UAH 1.07 billion.
Some UAH 500 million was laid for the construction and reconstruction of bridges, UAH 116 million for ensuring the operationally safe condition of shipping locks.
In addition, the minister noted that within the framework of projects with international financial organizations, it is planned to develop urban passenger transport in Ukrainian cities (UAH 400 million) and modernize the Ukrainian railway (UAH 200 million).
“From the second half of 2020, we expect additional financing for infrastructure development projects due to excess of customs VAT and excise taxes,” the minister added.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has said that the draft national budget of Ukraine for 2020 provides UAH 15.1 billion for creative industry and culture development, which is UAH 2.8 billion more than in 2019.
“Next year we will stimulate mobility for children,” he said during the presentation of the 2020 draft national budget in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Honcharuk added that UAH 500 mln will be allocated for such programs.
In addition, UAH 240 million will be allocated for tourism infrastructure development.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting with top managers of the government and lawmakers has set a task to cut budget expenses on maintenance of officials by 10%. “We held a meeting to prepare the 2020 national budget for second reading. I listened to the Minister of Finance on the main indicators. I set the task to reduce national budget spending on officials for the next year by 10%,” Zelensky said in his Telegram channel on Friday.
The president said that this would save money and allow channeling funds to socially important budget items.
“This reduction should not affect teachers and doctors, those on whom the future of Ukraine depends,” Zelensky said.
In 2018, a budget of Ukrainian state financed 163 transplantations of organs abroad and 110 transplantations of bone marrow performed to the Ukrainian patients.
This data was presented by Oksana Dmytriyeva, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Transplantation and Modern Medical Technologies of the Parliamentary Committee on National Health, Medical Care and Health Insurance during a roundtable on October 8.
She said that UAH 600 million were allocated for such kind of operations in 2018.
“If the transplant system in Ukraine worked in a proper way, several thousands people could be treated for these means,” she said.
According to Dmytriyeva, nearly 5,000 persons annually seek for transplantation of organs for health reasons, however just 130 transplantations are performed in a year. Though, Ukraine is one of the last in Europe according to death donorship.
For her part, Health Minister Zoryana Skaletska said that it was a necessity in additional financing of the patients, who long for transplantation abroad since the funds provided for 2019 have already been spent.
Besides, Skaletska said that there was a need for more efficient use of public resources, including through the development of domestic transplantology.
As head of the bone marrow transplantation and intensive chemotherapy and immunotherapy department at the Okhmatdyt hospital, Oleksandr Lysytsia reported, today bone marrow transplantation from an unrelated donor was carried out only abroad. At the same time, performing of such operations in Ukraine would make it possible to reduce their cost by more than 30%.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in its program determined setting of the conditions for the development of transplantation in the country as one of the priority tasks, which would allow at least 30% of Ukrainian patients, who had previously received transplantation services abroad, to receive them at home.
The state budget of 2019 raised UAH 689.9 million for the program “Treatment of Ukrainian Citizens Abroad”, of which UAH 608 million has already been allocated for treatment.
NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy and its member companies paid UAH 83.7 billion in taxes and dividends to the national budget in January-September 2019, the company’s press service said.
Budget payments from the group accounted for about 15% of total budget revenue for the nine months of 2019, the company’s press service said.
As reported, in 2018 Naftogaz and its affiliated companies paid UAH 137.8 billion in taxes and dividends to the state budget in 2018, which was 27.2% more than in 2017. In particular, dividends were paid in the amount of UAH 29.5 billion, oil and gas production royalties totaled UAH 28.5 billion, VAT payments stood at UAH 37.4 billion, payments of corporate profit tax were UAH 23.9 billion.
Naftogaz brings together the country’s biggest oil and gas producers. It holds a monopoly on the transit of natural gas and its storage in underground facilities and on the transportation of crude oil by pipeline throughout Ukraine.
