Minister of Finance Serhiy Marchenko criticized head of the Ministry of Health Maksym Stepanov for poor planning of measures to combat COVID-19, while admitting the possibility of increasing spending on medicine in the state budget-2021.
“He behaves like a character from ’12 Chairs’. ‘Money in the morning – chairs in the evening, money in the evening – chairs in the morning, but money in advance.’ That’s how Stepanov behaves. His task is to get as much of a budget as possible, taking advantage of the fact that we have a COVID, we have problems, we have people dying, and then, using this rhetoric, to solve those problems that are necessary to solve. I think this is absolutely wrong,” Marchenko said in an interview with lb.ua.
“We must first propose a plan, show a solution to the problem, and there was enough time for that, and then ask the finance minister or the government questions to search for funds. And now we have the approach – first money, and then I will fight COVID-19. It is impossible to put the question like that,” the minister said.
At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Finance pointed to the unspent funds of the Fund to Combat COVID-19 at the end of 2020.
“At the Cabinet of Ministers we often sort things out, and this is normal, because I have something to ask him, in particular, about the leftovers of last year. He collected money, and in the end we got leftovers that were not used,” Marchenko said.
Speaking about the possibility of correction of the state budget for 2021, he also said there is a possibility of increasing spending on medicine.
“There is a possibility of such a scenario, since there is a need to close several issues on medicine. We will discuss with the IMF and with other partners the possibility of minor adjustments to the budget,” Marchenko said.
The State Budget of Ukraine for 2021 provides for an increase in funding for medicine, education and science, as well as the security and defense sector, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“Firstly, this is money for medicine. Almost UAH 160 billion. It is the most during the years of Ukraine’s independence. … We have raised salaries for doctors by 30%, but we all understand that this is not enough, so we strive to continue increasing their salaries in 2021,” Zelensky said in his vlog posted on his official Telegram channel on Friday night.
We also plan to equip 210 ER departments and 450 new ambulances. Supplemental payments for doctors who fight COVID-19 will be continued.
Next year education and science will receive UAH 26 billion more, and in total almost UAH 170 billion will be allocated for their development. In particular, the salaries of educators will increase by 20%.
As for defense expenditures, the budget of the Ministry of Defense in 2017 amounted to UAH 69 billion, in 2018 – UAH 86 billion, in 2019 – UAH 102 billion, and in 2021 it will reach over UAH 117 billion.
In general, the budget for the security and defense sphere, including expenditures on intelligence, the State Border Guard Service and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, amounted to more than UAH 267 billion.
Also, according to the president, starting from January 1 next year, the minimum wage will increase to UAH 6,000, and during the year it will increase to UAH 6,500.
The President thanked MPs from the Servant of the People party and other political forces for supporting the state budget and passing a number of other important laws. In particular, Zelensky noted the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of a law on the restoration of the powers of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention, which were previously revoked by a decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
Skyrizon Aircraft, a Chinese private company, and Xinwei Technology Group listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange under the terms of agreements with Ukroboronprom state concern will provide Ukraine’s aircraft manufacturing industry with grant financing in the amount of $100 million in case of obtaining permission from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) to purchase more than 50% of shares in PJSC Motor Sich (Zaporizhia), an informed source in the government has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The receipt of these funds in the special fund is already provided for in Paragraph 9 of Article 11 of the law on the national budget of Ukraine for 2019: some UAH 2.8 billion at the exchange rate at the time of adoption of the state budget,” the source said.
He noted that this condition is one of the key in agreements between the Chinese investors and Ukroboronprom approved by the government together with the transfer to the Ukrainian state corporation of a blocking stake in the amount of more than 25% of the shares for the joint management of Motor Sich.
The source noted that this project on the development of aircraft production in Ukraine and the construction of semi knocked-down production in the Chinese city of Chongqing was launched in 2015 on the basis of cooperation agreements between Motor Sich, Skyrizon and Xinwei Group. Within its framework, the Ukrainian company in 2016 received preferential credit financing in the amount of $100 million, and in Chongqing the construction of an assembly plant has now begun.
The basic document for the project is the agreement on cooperation dated April 27, 2018 between Ukraine represented by Ukroboronprom and Skyrizon and Xinwei, which underwent an independent examination of British law by one of the world’s largest law firms, the source said.
The deficit of the national budget of Ukraine in January-March 2019 amounted to UAH 26.166 billion, in particular the general fund deficit was UAH 39.272 billion with the target being UAH 43.54 billion, according to data released by the State Treasury Service.
According to the agency, government borrowing for the three months of 2019 amounted to UAH 115.3 billion, while debt repayment almost UAH 94.3 billion.
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance reported that the national budget deficit for this period was financed mainly by public borrowing.
Privatization brought almost UAH 184 million with the expected figures for this period exceeding UAH 6 billion.
In general, the national budget for this period received UAH 210.6 billion in revenues, with general fund income being UAH 178.2 billion and the target standing at UAH 194.15 billion.
National budget expenditures in January-March this year were at the level of UAH 237.4 billion, including UAH 218.2 billion in the general fund, with the plan being UAH 239.3 billion.
According to the treasury, local budgets during this period posted a surplus of UAH 17.2 billion, and the surplus of the general fund was UAH 19.4 billion.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said that he had signed the law on the state budget of Ukraine for 2019.
“I have signed a budget law,” the president said, speaking at the 2nd Ukrainian Women’s Congress in Kyiv on Friday.
Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Ihor Nasalik has said that the Cabinet of Ministers will consider the draft state budget for 2019 at a meeting on September 14. “We will adopt[the draft state budget for 2019 at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers tentatively on Friday,” he told reporters after a government meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday.
Earlier, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said that the Cabinet of Ministers would submit the draft state budget for 2019 to the Verkhovna Rada on time, before September 15.
