The amendments to the state budget that were adopted recently solve neither the large-scale coronavirus fight issues, nor the matters of support for population and the business. This was stated by OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE MP Serhiy Lovochkin commenting on the new version of the state budget as passed by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

“The philosophy of the amended budget is totally against the tasks that the nation faces during the pandemic. The government has planned to increase net borrowings (borrowings minus payments of the national debt principal) by 216billion hryvnia. Initially, the authors said this amount will be allocated to the fund for fighting coronavirus and its implications. But ultimately this fund will only be allocated 66bln hryvnia, which is much less than the new borrowings, even including another 46bln hryvnia provided directly to Healthcare Ministry and Pension Fund,” the MP said.

According to the politician, the nation will receive by 100bln hryvnia less for fighting the pandemic, and the main reason behind this is the Cabinet’s reluctance to cut non-production and state apparatus costs.

“By introducing quarantine measures, the government locked down whole sectors of private businesses. The business in incurring huge losses firing people, forcing them to take leaves without pay, or cutting salaries. At the same time the government is reluctant to significantly cut expenses for state apparatus, making it its top priority over the rest of the issues,” Lovochkin said.

He said that a twofold cut of expenses for the Verkhovna Rada, the Office of the President, the Cabinet, the ministries, and local state administrations would save 31.9bln hryvnia. The same cut in expenses on courts, prosecutors’ offices, NABU, SAP, other agencies will provide another 14.3bln hryvnia, and another 22.2bln hryvnia might come from cutting current Defense Ministry expenses by 25 percent.

“The state budget still provides for the funding of various non-production expenses for several billion hryvnia. The Cabinet has planned 32 million hryvnia for promotion of Ukraine’s image, 50 million for moviemaking, 150 million for the cultural fund but cut subsidies expenses by 8bln hryvnia. This shows that the Cabinet does not understand what must be prioritized during the pandemic crisis and even in normal life,” Lovochkin said.

“The cuts above could provide total savings of more than 130bln hryvnia. This is exactly the amount included in the Anti-crisis plan of the OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE and which is desperately needed for fighting coronavirus and its implications. Relevant amendments must be introduced to the state budget today. We insist that it’s done and are willing to vote for them anytime,” the MP said.