The state has not been paying the “national cashback” for 2 months: what is the reason?
6 November 14:15
Payments under the National Cashback program have not been credited to Ukrainians’ accounts for two months due to a lack of funding for the program.
This is stated in the publication of the EP, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
Thus, users of the program complain that the last time they received a payment under the “national cashback” was in early September. It was a payment for purchases made in July. It came late (it was supposed to arrive by the end of August). At the same time, the payment for August is still being processed.
According to the government’s sources, there is no funding in the budget for cashback payments. It was planned to be “transferred” from the reserve fund, but the funds ran out there, which is why payments are delayed.
The interlocutors of the Ministry of Finance assure that the decision to allocate funds from the reserve fund has been approved and the funds should soon be transferred to the accounts of Ukrainians. However, they did not specify when exactly this might happen.
Despite the problems with funding this support program, the government has already announced new ones. In particular, the distribution of UAH 1000 to everyone, a one-time payment of UAH 6500 to socially vulnerable groups, and free rail travel within 3000 km.
The government believes that these initiatives will cost the budget UAH 14 billion. However, such calculations raise doubts. Last winter, for example, 14.4 million Ukrainians received a payment of UAH 1,000 (expenditures amounted to UAH 14.4 billion). The thesis that the UZ-3000 program will not cost anything to the budget, which is already paying to cover Ukrzaliznytsia’s losses, is also questionable.
As a reminder, Ukraine continues to run the National Cashback program, which encourages the purchase of Ukrainian goods. Ukrainians receive a 10% cashback for purchases of more than 400,000 items in participating stores.
More than 3.5 million people have already joined the program, and the total amount of payments has reached UAH 2.9 billion. Cashback can be received via cards registered in the program and spent on utilities, medicines, books, charity or donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
