Cabinet prepares to increase state budget expenditures by UAH 400 billion for AFU needs, Rada will approve them by end of August – Pidlasa
The Cabinet of Ministers is preparing to increase state budget expenditures by UAH 400 billion for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada will approve them by the end of August.
According to the press service of the Verkhovna Rada, the head of the Rada's budget committee, Roksolana Pidlasa, announced this, the Ukrainian News agency reports.
Pidlasa stated that this year Ukraine has a need to purchase more weapons for the Defense Forces on its own, since fewer weapons are coming from international partners, so the government is preparing to submit amendments to the state budget to the Rada by approximately UAH 400 billion.
According to her, these expenditures will be covered by overfulfillment of tax and customs revenues, domestic government bonds, as well as grants from partners, there will be no interruptions in providing military personnel.
"In the first half of this year, weapons and ammunition worth more than UAH 300 billion were contracted. Now the government and parliament must promptly make changes to the state budget so that the need for providing military personnel and future purchases of weapons is completely covered. I would say that this situation is planned, and by the end of August, changes to the budget will be approved and signed by the President, so there will be no interruptions in providing military personnel, just as there were none in previous years," the politician noted.
According to her, there is no talk of raising taxes at all now, all needs will be covered from several different sources.
"The needs will be covered by the overfulfillment of tax and customs revenues. For example, in five months, the tax and customs showed a good result - together they exceeded the planned revenues by UAH 41 billion. All overfulfillment will be used for defense needs. In addition, we received a grant for non-refundable assistance from the UK for the purchase of weapons. These are so far the only funds from international partners that can be used for defense needs. This is about UAH 82 billion this year. In addition, it is planned to increase the plan for domestic borrowing, the so-called government bonds. There is room for a certain increase in borrowing," Pidlasa emphasized.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the Ministry of Finance announced a budget revision due to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a significant deficit.