“Over the last eighteen months the government managed to secure inflation of almost 77%, which exceeded the indexation of social standards in September six-fold. MP Serhiy Lovochkin (OPPOSITION BLOC) said this in a statement.

“In order to somehow improve their low approval ratings in the run-up to local elections, the current government threw this pitiful sop to people in the form of income indexation of 13%. But over the last eighteen months the government managed to secure inflation of almost 77%, which exceeded this populist election season indexation of social standards six-fold,” Lovochkin said.

According to him, the government is trying to shift responsibility for all their failures on to the shoulders of Ukrainians making them pay for new utility tariffs and prices out of their pockets. Meanwhile, prior to this September handout, the government kept welfare payments frozen for over a year, Serhiy Lovochkin said. “The government has accumulated substantial indexation arrears it owes to our citizens, which should be paid back,” the MP emphasized.

He reminded that the OPPOSITION BLOC had submitted to the Parliament its “Social Package” in the summer with more than 50 draft laws. According to the MP, those draft laws offered real indexation, raising social standards and guarantees, revision of the consumer basket, increased living wage, a ban on growth of prices and tariffs, payment of wage arrears and job security initiatives.

“We need to pass these draft laws today, as the government boasted that they have the money in the budget. Recently, the Finance Minister announced that the state budget had a 24 billion hryvnia surplus, and there was 46 billion hryvnias sitting in the treasury account. This means that the government can repay these indexation arrears to people, but for some reason they are not in a hurry to do so,” Lovochkin said.

“It's absurd, when the Ministry of Finance boasts of its record budget revenues achieved due to catastrophic inflation and the abolition of indexation, while wages, pensions and social benefits of Ukrainians have been frozen for eighteen months,” Lovochkin added.

Recall, the Opposition Bloc demands that the government should conduct real indexation of citizens’ incomes, rather than engage in populism, mollifying people with meager handouts before the local elections.