The tendency of the growth of salary debts, which has been observed for six months, was fixed in June. As the MP from the OPPOSITION BLOC Serhiy Lovochkin said, as of July 1, 2017, debts amounted to 2.392 billion hryvnia, the worst figure for the last decade.
“2.4 billion hryvnia of salary debts by July is an anti-record of the last decade. Only for the last month the debt increased by another 3.1% or 71.7 million hryvnia, and since the beginning of the year – by 33.6% or 600.9 million hryvnia. At the same time, more than 96% of the increase in debt is due to an increase in non-payments on economically active, operating enterprises. So, we are talking about a systemic deterioration of the situation in the economy. There is one step from the enterprise-debtor to the enterprise-bankrupt,” Serhiy Lovochkin considers.
According to him, attempts to explain the growth of debt by problems in the ATO zone do not work – debts are growing all over the country. So, in June 2017, salary debts increased in 17 of 25 Oblasts of Ukraine, and from the beginning of the year – in 18 Oblasts. In June the worst situation was in Sumy Oblast (+9.6% or UAH 10.7 million new debt), Kiev (+11% or UAH 9.8 million), Volyn Oblast (+15.7% or +UAH 2,7 million).
The politician explained that the most affected sectors of the economy are those that are put on the brink of survival by decisions of the authorities: coal mining (growth of debt in June is 7.5%), housing and utilities (3.5%), chemical industry (0.6%), machine building (2.4%). In agriculture, after the abolition of the special regime of VAT, which deprived agrarians of billions of working capital, only in June debts grew by 17.2%, and from the beginning of the year – by 36.4%.
“There are no objective reasons for such a sharp increase in salary debts. There are wrong decisions as a consequence of unprofessionalism. The situation shows that a comprehensive program is needed to support the leading sectors of the economy and reduce tariffs for enterprises and housing and communal services. And we need people who can implement this program. Only this way it is possible to restore the profitability of enterprises and eliminate salary debts,” Serhiy Lovochkin stated.
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