The budget committee recommended the draft state budget for 2025 for the first reading

The Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine recommended the 2025 budget and draft budget conclusions for the first reading.

This was reported by the head of the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ulyana Pidlasa.

The Budget Committee proposes to the government to make the following changes to the draft state budget:

• direct all sources of filling the road fund to the general fund of the budget — to priority needs, in particular the needs of national security and defense (this is 43.2 billion hryvnias next year);
• allocate at least 2 billion hryvnias to humanitarian demining;
• exclude the proposal to transfer hospital bank accounts to the treasury;
• that from April 1, 2025, the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada will switch to a graded system of remuneration;
• that only those who actually lived in the exclusion zone from 1986 to 1993 received the supplement for non-working pensioners in the exclusion zone. Because the cost of payments to settlers after these years reaches about 15 billion hryvnias;
• review the idea of introducing bonuses for local court judges in 2025 and review expenses for their support accordingly;
• to consider the possibility of allocating 4.8 billion for new passenger cars;
• to consider the possibility of directing 4% of taxes on profits or income (PIT) to the budgets of united territorial communities and at the same time abandoning the subvention from the state budget to regional budgets to compensate for the difference in tariffs for communal services;
• decide on the expediency of transferring to the state budget the reversion from the local government budgets, i.e. leave 12.9 billion hryvnias for the budgets of local self-government bodies.

According to Pidlasoi, the draft with amendments should be considered by the Cabinet this week.

What preceded

On September 13, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the draft state budget for 2025. The priorities are security and defense of Ukraine.

Defense expenditures will increase to at least 2.22 trillion hryvnias. Shmyhal promises more money for Ukrainian weapons, equipment and drones.

More than 400 billion hryvnias are allocated for social protection. According to the Prime Minister, pensions will be indexed, and subsidies will be paid to all those who need it. Another 211 billion hryvnias will be allocated to health care, and almost 170 billion to education.

Support for regions and business is among the priorities. The program of humanitarian demining and the "eOselya" program will be continued. The budget also provides funds for soft credit programs and grants for entrepreneurs.

"The innovation of this budget will be the implementation of a new management model of public investment projects, which will make capital expenditures more transparent and efficient," Shmyhal noted.

The state will also focus on reconstruction, energy projects and the implementation of the new veteran policy.

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