Last week Verkhovna Rada approved of the budget in the first reading session. During the two weeks the government should take into consideration the proposals of all the deputies and introduce the document to the Parliament in the course of the second reading session. The budget can be finally adopted in the second session or to be redirected again to the Cabinet of Ministers for amendments and preparation for the third session.
Currently the document contains the clause on state financing of Ukrainian agro industrial sector, which amounts to 10 billion UAH. Only 5.7 billion UAH will be allocated from the Common fund and the remaining 4.3 billion UAH are envisaged in the special fund financed from revenues received in the course of privatization and special confiscations.
But the law on special confiscations has not been adopted yet by the Parliament. As for the law on privatization for 2017 – it does not exist even at the stage of a law bill, despite the demand of privatization of Odessa Portside Plant and the rest owned by state regional power distribution company (Oblenergo), according to memorandum with IMF.
Presently, the promised 10 billion UAH are not allocated in the budget programs. Thus, the announced sum should be taken as a common political declaration, but not as a precise economic plan. Moreover the budget is not and has never been the document to be fulfilled literally. The corrections are made throughout the year with the corresponding laws on amendments and supplements to the budget. And the announced 10 billion UAH corresponds to one of the requirements in Ukrainian legislation, according to which state financing of agro industrial sector should equal no less than 1% of state budget’s expenditures (expenditures of budget 2017 – 960 billion UAH). (UkrAgroConsult/Business World Magazine)