The Budget Committee has recommended the draft state budget for 2025 and the draft budget conclusions to the government for the first reading, including directing all sources of funding for the Road Fund (43.2 billion UAH) to the general budget fund for priority needs, primarily national security and defense, reported the committee chair Roksolana Pidlasa.
"We expect consideration in the hall in the coming days," she wrote on Facebook on Monday.
According to her, among other key changes, at least 2 billion UAH will be allocated for humanitarian demining, the proposal to transfer hospital accounts in banks to the Treasury will be excluded, and the apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada will transition to a graded wage system starting April 1, 2025.
Additionally, Pidlasa noted that it is proposed to pay the so-called "Chernobyl pension" (an additional payment to non-working pensioners in the resettlement zone) only to those who actually lived in the exclusion zone from 1986 to 1993. "The cost of the pensions for new 'settlers' is about 15 billion UAH," the committee chair clarified.
She pointed out that the committee also suggests the government reconsider the idea of introducing bonuses for local court judges in 2025 and accordingly review the expenses for their support, as well as consider allocating funding (4.8 billion UAH) for new passenger carriages.
Finally, she stated that the draft budget conclusions contain an initiative to direct 4% of personal income tax (PIT) to the budgets of united territorial communities, abandoning the subsidy from the state budget to regional budgets to compensate for the difference in utility tariffs, and leaving 12.9 billion UAH for local government budgets.
Member of Parliament Yaroslav Zheleznyak reported on Telegram that the committee rejected proposals to abandon the 37% salary increase for prosecutors, but at the same time removed funds for the cashback program.
In his opinion, the consideration of the draft with 2098 amendments will require two session days this week. "Evening for amendments and morning for voting," he wrote.
If the Verkhovna Rada approves these budget conclusions, it will mean the adoption of the state budget in the first reading, after which it will be sent to the government for consideration of these conclusions and submission to parliament for the second reading.