Rada intends to transfer Recovery Fund from Ministry of Finance to Communities Development Ministry, increase 2023 state budget deficit by UAH 3.8 bln

KYIV. Feb 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Verkhovna Rada intends to transfer the Fund for the Elimination of the Consequences of Armed Aggression in the amount of about UAH 53 billion from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development and increase spending and loans of the special fund of the state budget for 2023 by UAH 5.56 billion for healthcare, restoration of bridges, improvement of checkpoints, preferential loans to farmers and grants business.

According to information on its website, 266 MPs backed the relevant bill with amendments to the state budget-2023 on Tuesday.

As one of the authors of this document, the head of the parliamentary budget committee, Roksolana Pidlasa, said on Facebook that the text for the first reading remained unchanged.

According to her, the transfer of budget programs of the Ministry for Communities, Territories Development and the Ministry of Infrastructure to the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development is among the essential changes, as well as including the recently created State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development on the basis of Ukravtodor into the state budget and transferring part of the programs of the State Agency of Infrastructure Projects of Ukraine to it.

According to the document, expenditures and loans of the special fund of the state budget for 2023 will increase by UAH 5.56 billion, and external borrowings with a corresponding increase in the state budget deficit by UAH 3.84 billion, international grants by UAH 0.45 billion and the return of unused UAH 1.28 billion to pay unemployment assistance will be sources of financing.

Pidlasa said that UAH 1.35 billion is proposed to send to a new budget program for the reconstruction and/or modernization of three hospitals: Okhmatdyt, a university clinic in Kyiv, and a rehabilitation center in Lviv using a loan from the Austrian government.

Another UAH 1.28 billion will be grants for small-size and micro-businesses from the processing sector, UAH 365.7 million to the Partial Loan Guarantee Fund in Agriculture through a World Bank grant, UAH 1.12 billion to restore bridges through a loan the government of the UK, UAH 1.094 billion for the arrangement of checkpoints at the expense of a loan from the government of Poland.

In addition, the head of the committee said that UAH 285 million from a loan of the Polish government will be used to purchase drones for monitoring the state border, and UAH 80 million to purchase special equipment for hospitals at the expense of a grant from the Japanese government.

"All loan and grant agreements have already been signed, agreed upon and partially allocated, which means that it’s only about their distribution, and not about increasing the debt burden," Pidlasa said.

According to her, UAH 4.5 billion of balances from the 2020-2022 programs, as well as part (62.5%) of the Road Fund money, allocated in 2023 to ensure road safety, will be resend to upgrade the rolling stock of the railway infrastructure for passenger transportation.