Today, on 18 September, the Verkhovna Rada adopted draft law No. 11417 on increasing the budget by UAH 500 billion for military needs this year.
The bill was supported by 298 MPs, Yaroslav Zheleznyak reports.
He notes that this brings this year's expenditures to a record UAH 3.73 trillion for Ukraine.
MP Iryna Herashchenko said that the draft law proposes
- adjust the expenditure side of the state budget by UAH 434 billion 603.5 million, increase expenditures under certain budget programmes by UAH 500 billion 311.9 million (including UAH 495 billion 311.9 million for the security and defence sector) and reduce expenditures and loans by UAH 65 billion 708.4 million;
- to allow the CMU to allocate loans for the implementation of investment projects by decision of the Cabinet of Ministers and in agreement with the relevant lender.
It is also proposed to
- to allocate the remaining budget funds for restoration, construction, modernisation, and arrangement
- to allocate funds from the Ukraine Tourist Company and the Ukrainian Institute of Intellectual Property to the needs of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.
Since only the country itself can finance its army without the help of international partners, it is necessary to find funds within the state. In this regard, in July, the government proposed to raise taxes, including the military tax. Yesterday, the relevant draft law was passed in the first reading.
According to the Prime Minister, four steps have been developed to find additional budget revenues. One of them is the so-called economic reservation, or, as the government called it, the "fight or flight" principle.