Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr
Groysman, at a Government meeting on Wednesday, presented the core objectives
included in the State Budget for 2017 that had been passed earlier this day by
the Parliament.
"The focus of this Budget
is a person," said the Prime Minister.
Social standards
The Government adopted a
decision to increase the minimum wage twofold from 1 January in Ukraine - up to
UAH 3200. "It was a bold, but unprecedented decision in the history of the
country's independence, when the minimum wage doubles", he said.
Healthcare
2017 will see a growth of
average wages of healthcare employees. Wages of health workers will increase by
over a third in 2017 and for various categories will amount from UAH 3960 up to
a maximum figure – UAH 8475.
Moreover, a resource for
centralized purchase of medicines has been raised by UAH 2 billion – amounting
to UAH 5.9 billion.
In general, financing of the
healthcare system has been increased by almost UAH 19 billion.
Education
Formation of wage for Ukrainian
teachers has changed - it was raised by two tariff categories.
The first tariff category has
been also changed from UAH 1335 to UAH 1600.
The average salary of
pedagogical staff of secondary schools will increase by almost 50%. Wages will
grow on average from UAH 1672 to 2140 as compared to wages in 2016. From the
first day this issue was a priority for the Government, said Volodymyr
Groysman.
Approaches to the payment of
academic and social scholarships to students also underwent change. In general,
the Government has increased funding for scholarships by UAH 576 million.
Volodymyr Groysman noted that
the scholarship should encourage success in education, to serve as an
additional motivation to obtain high quality education and be competitive.
Decentralization
In 2015, when fiscal
decentralization was launched, local budgets grew by 52%. This year local
budgets will grow by another 24%.
Presently, local budgets
possess tremendous resources, said Volodymyr Groysman.
In this regard, he stressed
the need for effective use of these funds, for investing these in the quality
of life of Ukrainian citizens. Instead, in many towns leaders keep the money in
deposit accounts. "It is an irresponsible position," announced the
Head of Government.
"It is crucial to create
a system in which money should work to satisfy needs of Ukrainian citizens.
Therefore, in the framework of financial decentralization we musts provide not
just revenues, but commitments of local communities to act in the interests of
their citizens”, emphasized the Prime Minister. “It is the philosophy placed by
us as a basis of Budget for 2017".
In this regard, in particular,
the budget envisages for a change in approaches to financing of education and
healthcare, as well as the devolution of authority to ensure maintenance of
institutions in the aforesaid areas, thereby stimulating local executive bodies
to efficient energy use.
To secure here delegated
powers and protection of communities there has been planned an additional
subsidy from the State Budget worth UAH 14.9 billion.
The Head of Government
added each community would get necessary support.
Another novelty is
introduction of direct interbudget transfers for the consolidated
territorial communities that are capable of providing high quality services to
the citizens.
Referring to additional
support tools, the Prime Minister noted that the Government had accumulated UAH
9 billion in the Budget, which exceeds 2.2 times the relevant funding in 2016
for support of regional development.
Volodymyr Groysman refuted rumors that
the central government collects the excise tax on oil products from local
budgets. The Government considers that local excise tax should grow and
expects, due to the change in the system of tax administration throughout the
country, an increase in the excise tax for local budgets by over UAH 2 billion,
he said.
“Consolidation in the
redistribution formula will ensure an increase in revenues of local budgets”,
explained the Prime Minister. “Revenues are planned no less than the fact of
2016. And we hope that the change in the administration system will enable
growth in local budgets".
Road
For the large-scale
construction of roads there has been planned in total over UAH 35 billion.
To ensure start of the road
repair activities with beginning of the season, the Government will focus on
three tasks: determining a strategy of development of road network, ensuring
efficient use of resources and high quality of road repair activities.
"There are three
objectives: to determine a strategy of road network development instead of just
repairing or building a road to nowhere. We must build roads for people to
benefit that are in demand in the country and that will emphasize our logistics
capabilities and positively influence the development of the national economy.
Therefore, we must define a clear strategy what and where we build. The second
is the price. It should be competitive, the most efficient use of funds, it
should be honest. Here question No. 1 is resource efficiency. And the third
position is quality", told Volodymyr Groysman.
Energy efficiency
For 2017, in particular it has
been intended establishment of an Energy Efficiency Fund.
The planned expenses of the
State budget amount to UAH 800 million, while funds from international donors
are expected at the level of UAH 3 billion UAH (up to € 100 million).
Support for AIC
A sum worth UAH 6.5 billion
has been envisaged to support agricultural producers, including to supportagricultural
engineering.
"Our goal is to maintain
investment in Ukraine, to produce a high-quality competitive product in
Ukraine, instead of being a supplier of raw materials. We must sow,
harvest, process, pay people wages and then sell. Hence, we will have
jobs for people, wages, foreign exchange earnings in the country exceeding
those we have today," said Volodymyr Groysman.
Culture
The total budget for National
Public Television and Radio Broadcassting Company of Ukraine is
planned to amount UAH 1.2 billion, said the Prime Minister.
Spending on this sector has
been raised and it is a proof culture is considered one of the topmost
directions to the Government.
Financing of diplomatic
missions in 2017
Expenditure on the diplomatic
service in 2017 has been increased by UAH 1 billion – from being UAH 3 billion
in 2016 up to UAH 4 billion in 2017.
"We have fulfilled our
promises to the Ukrainian diplomacy," stressed Volodymyr Groysman.
The Prime Minister emphasized
the Government's openness and encouraged social activists and experts to track
where "each budgetary hryvnia" is spent, thereby contributing to
improving of efficiency of use of budgetary resource at any level.
"Help us to enhance our
transparency," urged Volodymyr Groysman.
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