Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko expects that changes to the Budget Code will be passed in the upcoming weeks.

 

She stated this on Thursday during a meeting with city mayors and representatives of oblast state administrations in charge of forming the 2009 budget.

 

“I expect that, perhaps even in the upcoming weeks, changes to the budget and Budget Code will be passed because parliament is currently working, working basically with at times 400 votes. This means that the legislative process has been completely unblocked,” said Tymoshenko.

 

The Premier noted that in 2009 total financing for local budget in comparison with the current year will increase by 43.251 billion hryvnias, including increasing the minimum wage to the subsistence wage.

 

“What we’ve spoken about will become reality in 2009,” she added.

 

Yulia Tymoshenko noted that resources from the overall budget will be split evenly between the state and local budgets.

 

When speaking about changes to the Budget Code, the Premier announced that they plan to fully transfer six types of revenues from the central to local budgets, in particular for licenses and certificates, state registration and collections for special use of national water resources.

 

She also announced that 10% of profit tax will stay local and will go towards the development budget rather than investment subsidies and that 100% of land payments will also remain in the regions and will be used for development.

 

In addition, Yulia Tymoshenko said that they plan to introduce a real estate tax through passage of a real estate tax law, to which the central government “will have no relation.”

“We will only open up this right for local budget, but local councils will determine who the tax should be paid to and in what amount…The central government will absolutely not interfere in this,” she said. 

 

Tymoshenko noted that thanks to changes in the budget code, local budgets will obtain an additional 7.8 billion hryvnias.

 

She also announced that they plan to allocate funds from the state budget for non-school education. “This means that we will fully support kindergartens and absolutely all government non-school education institutions and we will provide enough funds for this – an additional 1.5 billion hryvnias will be allocated for this from the state budget,” said the Premier. 

 

She also announced that centers for social and professional rehabilitation for invalids will also come under state financing.

 

According to her, financing for compensations and food benefits for people who suffered from the Chornobyl catastrophe will be transferred from the state budget to local budgets. Vocational education will also be financed from local budgets.

 

Tymoshenko also informed that in 2009 the purchase of medicines, organ transplant measures, development of organ donation, diabetes treatment and other public health matters that today are financed from the state budget will be decentralized.

 

Local budgets will also pay for all Ministry of Housing and Communal Services programs for reforming the sector, including in villages.

 

“Local budgets will be fully managing an additional 3.226 billion hryvnias along with subventions and subsidies from the state budget,” she said. These subventions and subsidies will be used to build recreation areas, memorial museum complexes, natural reserves, purchase school buses and computers for schools, and equipment for village medical centers.

 

According to Tymoshenko, “in total, in 2009 we will allocate 5.455 billion hryvnias in subventions and donations on the central level.”

 

She also noted that 100% of fees collected for environmental pollution will remain in the regions.