The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has reduced the deficit in the draft national budget for 2021 from 6% to 5.5% of GDP, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said.
“An opportunity has been found to reduce the budget deficit to GDP from 6%, as proposed at first reading, to 5.5%,” he said at an extraordinary government meeting on Thursday.
Thus, the deficit was reduced by UAH 24 billion, to UAH 246.35 billion.
In the initial draft, state budget revenues were determined at the level of UAH 1.071 trillion, expenses – UAH 1.331 trillion. The new wording of the bill provides for UAH 1.092 trillion in revenues and UAH 1.328 trillion in expenses.
As reported, the state budget for 2020 provides for a deficit of 7.5% of GDP.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) expects an actual budget deficit in 2020 at the level of 6-6.5% of GDP instead of the 7.5% foreseen in the forecast, Deputy Governor of the NBU Dmytro Sologub has said.
“This year’s budget deficit is set at 7.5% of GDP. This is absolutely correct from the countercyclical point of view. But, apparently, the actual deficit will be lower… We estimate that the budget deficit will be around 6 -6.5% of GDP,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, the budget deficit fell below the forecast due to the strong underfunding of existing expenses. “Catching up on them in recent months will not be easy given the funding opportunities,” he said.
State budget revenues in August 2020 amounted to UAH 100.2 billion, which is 15.2% higher than the planned figure and 14.3% higher than last year’s level, according to data from the State Treasury Service.
According to the agency, the general budget fund received UAH 85.4 billion in July, which is 19.7% more than the plan and 10% more than in August 2019. According to the service, in general, in January-August 2020 the state budget received UAH 688 billion, which is 2.8% less than the target, but 2.5% more than last year’s figure for this period.
In particular, the general fund for the eight months of this year received UAH 594 billion, the backlog of the plan was 3%, but this figure corresponds to the level of the eight months of 2019.
Customs in August brought almost UAH 26.9 billion, which is 1.1% more than the plan and 6.5% higher than in August 2019. Following the results of the eight months, customs receipts amounted to UAH 177.6 billion, lagging behind the expected level by 15.9%, and from last year’s level by 13.8%.
Tax revenues in August exceeded the plan by 33.2% and were 12% higher compared to August last year, amounting to UAH 56 billion. In the eight months, the tax service overfulfilled the plan by 5.3% with the revenues being UAH 356 billion, which is 17.3% more than in January-August-2019.
According to the service, VAT refunds in August fell to UAH 8.57 billion compared to UAH 9.13 billion a month earlier.
The deficit of the national budget of Ukraine amounted to UAH 40 billion in January-August 2020, the Finance Ministry said citing recent data of the State Treasury Service of Ukraine.
The deficit of the general fund totaled UAH 51 billion.
According to data of the State Treasury Service, expenses for the general fund amounted to UAH 646.6 billion, or 87.4% of the reporting period’s breakdown.
“A total of UAH 208 billion was raised from issuing government domestic loan bonds for financing state debt – 13.2% of the plan, including UAH 84.6 billion or $2.4 billion and EUR7 million from government domestic loan bond issues denominated in foreign currencies,” the ministry said.
Some UAH 170.3 billion was raised from external sources, which corresponds to the plan, including UAH 55.4 billion from placement of 12-year eurobonds worth $2 billion at 7.253% per annum, UAH 55.2 billion from the first tranche from the IMF in the framework of the 2020 Stand-By Arrangement, UAH 33.8 billion from placing ten-year eurobonds worth EUR1.25 billion at 4.375% per annum, UAH 15 billion in macro-financial assistance funds from the European Union, and a loan of UAH 1.35 billion from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the framework of the project “Modernization of the Social Support System.”
A total of UAH 275 billion was allocated for paying off state debt, which is 99.9% of the amount planned.
NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy and its member companies paid UAH 77.9 billion in taxes and fees to the state budget in January-July 2020 (including the balance of dividends for 2019), the company’s press service has reported.
According to the report, revenues from the group amounted to more than 17% of the total state budget revenues for the specified period.
As reported, NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy and its member companies paid UAH 121.4 billion in taxes and dividends to the state budget in 2018.
Naftogaz Ukrainy unites the largest oil and gas companies in the country. It is a monopoly for storing natural gas in underground storage facilities, as well as for transporting oil by pipeline across the country.
PJSC Donbasenergo in July 2020 transferred UAH 68.4 million of taxes and other mandatory payments to the state and local budgets, which is almost 1.8 times more than in July 2019 (UAH 38.3 million).
According to the press release of the company, UAH 59.6 million (VAT and other state taxes) were transferred to the state budget and UAH 0.2 million to the local budget of Donetsk region.
The company has also paid UAH 8.6 million of excise duty, which is 3.2% for every UAH 1 per kWh of generated electricity.
As reported, Donbasenergo in 2019 reduced electricity production by 2.4% (by 84.5 million kWh) compared to 2018, to 3.371.7 billion kWh. In the overall structure of electricity generation in Ukraine for the year the company occupied 2.2% of the market, in the structure of thermal power generation – 7.5%.
Donbasenergo owns the Starobesheve Thermal Power Plant (TPP, located in the occupied territory) and Sloviansk TPP with their total installed capacity of 2,880 MW, including the capacity of Sloviansk TPP – 880 MW. At the end of March 2017, the general company announced the loss of control over the operation of Starobesheve TPP, as well as part of the structural units located in a temporarily occupied territory.
PJSC Energoinvest Holding owns 60.86% of Donbasenergo shares, another 25% of the general company is owned by the state. Currently, the company is controlled by Maksym Efimov.
