Parliament’s Budget Committee opposes allowing parties to buy military government bonds
18 November 2024 14:42
The Parliamentary Committee on Budget approved the Draft Budget 2025 for the second reading. This was reported on Facebook by the chairman of the committee, Roksolana Pidlasa, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
24 deputies voted in favor, 3 abstained, and one voted against.
According to MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, the final vote on the second reading and the law as a whole is to take place later this week at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada.
He also emphasized that only two amendments were supported during the committee meeting: not to transfer hospitals to the Treasury and to remove the provision allowing parties to use funds to buy government bonds.
The head of the Budget Committee, Roksolana Pidlasa, also explained what the committee proposes to change in the draft budget for 20225:
– “$2 billion (UAH 90 billion) of loan funds should come to the state budget from the UK solely to cover military spending, namely the purchase of weapons. They are reflected in the special fund of external borrowings and the expenditures of the Ministry of Defense;
– Leave 4% of personal income tax (except for military) in the communities (i.e., 64% for the communities in total) for payments for utilities and energy and, accordingly, cancel the subvention to regional budgets to cover the difference in tariffs by UAH 12.2 billion;
– Allow the frontline communities NOT to transfer reverse flows to the state budget (a total of UAH 593 million);
– Plus 128 million for Ukrzaliznytsia to co-finance the European project for the development of railway infrastructure (actually, the railway track). Co-financing is a prerequisite for the provision of European funds;
– Plus UAH 277.1 million for the National Academy of Sciences, in particular for research in the military sphere.
Also, as Roksolana Pidlasa emphasized, the committee voted to exclude the possibility for political parties to buy military government bonds, and also excluded the obligation for hospitals to keep money in Treasury accounts.
As previously reported, in the draft state budget for 2025, most of the total expenditures are for national security and defense. According to Roksolana Pidlasa, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Budget, these expenditures are the priority of the draft.
“The legislation stipulates that the amount of expenditures on financial support for the security and defense sector should be at least 5% of the planned GDP. The draft state budget for 2025 provides for UAH 2 trillion 223 billion for national security and defense, or 26.3% of the projected GDP,” Roksolana Pidlasa said in late October.
She added that this amount includes expenditures under the budget programs of the Ministry of Defense and other entities of the security and defense sector, as well as state guarantees for loans raised to increase the state’s defense and security.
