The government of Ukraine has registered in the Verkhovna Rada a draft law on amendments to the Budget Code on ensuring the predictability of budgetary policy and strengthening debt sustainability (No. 9346), promptly fulfilling two of the 19 structural benchmarks of the EFF program with the IMF.
Head of the parliamentary budget committee Roksolana Pidlasa said on Facebook, it is about the resumption of Article 52 of the Budget Code and its strengthening in order to reduce the number of changes to the state budget, as well as the rules on establishing restrictions on the provision of state guarantees with clear criteria for their applications.
She said it is proposed to establish that the Rada can consider amendments to the state budget only in case of a positive conclusion of the Ministry of Finance indicating information on the possibilities of financial support in the current year and for the medium term.
It is assumed that under martial law there remains an unlimited right to review spending only in the security and defense sector.
In addition, from January 1, 2024, medium-term budget planning will be resumed through the preparation of the Budget Declaration, which was stopped in March last year due to the Russian full-scale invasion, and this year the development of the Debt Management Strategy, also stopped due to the war.
In addition, it is proposed to provide that in 2023-2028 the maximum amount of state guarantees provided by decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers cannot exceed 3% of the planned revenues of the general fund of the state budget.
“In 2021, the maximum volume was supposed to be no more than 8.4%, and for 2022 and 2023 it was not determined,” Pidlasa reminded.
She stressed that the budget committee will consider the bill in the near future.
“It is important to note that the predictability of budgetary policy and strengthening debt sustainability is one of the key conditions of the Memorandum on Economic and Financial Policies under the IMF-supported new four-year Extended Fund Facility for Ukraine,” the Finance Ministry said in turn.
In addition, First Deputy Head of the Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy Yaroslav Zhelezniak said that the government fulfilled another structural benchmark of the program with the IMF with a deadline of up to the end of May – it has developed a roadmap, including for solving the key problems identified as a result of conducting a taxpayer survey that will feed into the National Revenue Strategy roadmap.