Ukraine’s parliamentary committee add tweaks to draft of 2025 state budget
Source: Roksolana Pidlas, Budget Committee Chair
The Ukrainian Parliament’s budget committee has approved the draft 2025 state budget for a second reading, but added some amendments. The re-write will see such things like:
- Kyiv will receive a $2 billion (approximately 90 billion hryvnias) loan from the United Kingdom to finance military expenses, including weapons procurement – these funds will be allocated to a special foreign borrowing fund for the Ministry of Defense.
- Local Budget Funding changes assume that
- Communities retain 4% of the personal income tax (excluding military tax), securing 64% of local budget revenues to cover utility and energy costs.
- A subsidy of 12.2 billion hryvnias has been removed meaning regional budgets have to figure out how to offset tariff differences
- Frontline communities will be exempt from transferring reverse subsidies.
- “Ukrzaliznytsia” will get 128 million hryvnias to co-finance a European project for railway infrastructure development.
- The National Academy of Sciences will receive an additional 277.1 million hryvnias, with a share of it earmarked for military research projects.
- Political parties will no longer be allowed to purchase domestic government military bonds.
- Hospital Requirements. The government will drop the earlier introduced obligation for hospitals to keep funds exclusively in Treasury accounts.
The remaining provisions of the draft budget remain unchanged and align with the government’s original proposals. The document now awaits a vote in the parliamentary session for the second reading and final approval.
Amendments to Ukraine’s enforcement proceedings legislation, initiated by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, have entered into force. Among other measures, the reform provides for the automated lifting of attachments on bank accounts immediately after debts in enforcement proceedings have been fully settled. The main practical benefit for citizens is the complete elimination of the need to contact an enforcement officer in person and wait for paper decisions once the debt has been paid.
The 157th Separate Mechanized Brigade has received another batch of supplies as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front military initiative. This time, the military received seven quad bikes and four mobile shower and bath units.
In my previous column, I wrote about social innovations in Ukraine. Those innovations are part of civic resilience and the democratization of security, which Europe is paying close attention to right now. The EU is trying to work out how to spread responsibility for its own security across society as a whole, rather than leaving it to institutions alone. It is looking for concrete ways to bring ordinary people into the work of defense and resistance.
Petro Poroshenko’s lawyers have appealed to the High Anti-Corruption Court demanding that NABU be obligated to register proceedings regarding the fact of exerting influence on the court and to recognize Petro Poroshenko as a victim in the case of the Deputy Head of the Office of the President, Iryna Mudra, due to her pressure on Supreme Court judges who were considering a lawsuit to overturn sanctions.
Internationally recognized brands and financial institutions should direct capital to Ukraine now, not waiting for the hostilities to end. This was emphasized by Rinat Akhmetov, president of FC Shakhtar, during a working visit to UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, where he met with UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin.