When making calculations for the state budget-2020 draft bill, the government used understated figures of Ukraine’s population as provided by the Finance Ministry, based on data received from the State Statistics Service and Social Policy Ministry. This was stated by OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE MP Serhiy Lovochkin.

“The draft budget bill includes conservative expenses on education and healthcare because it’s based on understated figures of the population endowment. In one case, it uses a figure of 35.5 million people (36.8 million including IDPs), in another case — 37 million people. This means 5 million of our citizens are not covered by budget healthcare funding,” Lovochkin said.

The politician added that the Finance Ministry’s estimates (35.5mln to 36.8mln people) were used while calculating additional incentives to local budgets for support of education and healthcare institutions, and the 37-million figure — when calculating healthcare subventions for the regions.

“The government believes it shouldn’t provide healthcare and education to a part of the Ukrainian population. This approach is a certain discrimination. The parliament must correct the figures for the second reading of the bill in the Rada in order to restore justice,” Lovochkin said.

As reported, OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE had proposed an alternative budget-2020 bill. The members of the opposition party were able to find additional sources of funds aimed at solving social matters and support the economy of the country.

They offer to increase budget expenses by 260bln hryvnia, 200bln of which shall be allocated for increase of citizens’ social protection and 60bln spent on economic development nationally and in the regions.