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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The head of the Rada Budget Committee explained that this effectively means a refusal to fund these expenditures this year.
The Ministry of Finance postponed by December 39 billion UAH of capital expenditures that were to be funded in September, October, and November. This concerns, in particular, funds for protecting energy security ahead of the heating season, construction of shelters in schools and hospitals, reconstruction of medical facilities, and social housing.
Roksolana Podlasa, the head of the Verkhovna Rada Budget Committee, discussed changes to the state budget at the podcast “Chronicles of the Economy,” reported by Ekonomichna Pravda.
“The Ministry of Finance has made changes to the state budget and postponed some expenditures for September, October, and November to December. Primarily these are capital expenditures: construction and reconstruction, including hospitals; construction of shelters in hospitals and schools; protection of energy infrastructure; construction of social housing, etc.,” she noted.
According to Podlasa, the government continues to fund social expenditures, including salaries for budgetary sector workers. However, the budget situation remains tense.
The postponement of capital expenditures to the end of the year, she said, effectively means that they will not be funded this year.
“When we talk about capital expenditures, postponing them to December means that this year they simply will not be funded at all, because that would be impossible to do,” she added.
The reason is that in one month at the end of the budget year it is physically impossible to absorb these funds, sign contracts, and carry out construction and installation work.
The funding shortfall arose because the government and parliament did not fulfill their commitments within international aid programs on time. In particular, the Verkhovna Rada was supposed to approve the bill on abolition of the exemption for duty-free import of international shipments by the end of August. This would have allowed Ukraine to receive a tranche from the European Union in mid-September.
“However, we passed the bill in mid-September, so at best the money will arrive at the end of October, 2 months later. But these funds were already allocated for expenditures,” Podlasa emphasized.
In the year 2026, Ukraine planned to receive 50,8 billion dollars in international financing. However, due to delays in meeting requirements, only about 21 billion dollars arrived. That is, a large part of the funding planned in the budget has not yet arrived.
Problems with financing the state budget became more noticeable at the beginning of September. 10 September the government announced budget expenditure restrictions due to a delay in international aid. Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko at a meeting of the relevant Verkhovna Rada committee stated that the government was forced to limit some expenditures.
“I hope it will not come to wage delays, because that would be a financial catastrophe. But the probability exists,” he noted.
A few days later, Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky announced the risk of missing out on international financing and urged the parliament to pass bills on which the receipt of about 29,5 billion dollars by the end of the year depends.
According to economist Bohdan Danylyshyn, international transfers from January to July amounted to 1 trillion UAH, or 30,8% of all state budget revenues. Without this aid, the country’s own revenues would have covered only 65,4% of expenditures.
More details about Ukraine’s budget dependence on international aid and problems with its financing can be found in the ZN.UA article “The state-finance situation is close to critical. What to do” written by Bohdan Daniilishyn, head of the regional studies department at Kyiv National University named after V. HETMAN, corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
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