Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada on Nov. 22 passed bill No. 9084 amending the Budget Code of Ukraine, which along with amendments to the Tax Code is in the so-called “budget package.”
An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that the document was backed by 243 lawmakers.
Head of the subcommittee for budget policy and improvement of the provisions of the Budget Code Kostiantyn Ischeikin, who presented the document, says it envisages the expansion of possibilities for foreign borrowing by local authorities, respectively authorizing separately city and regional budgets to do this.
The bill also will settle the issue of using the royalty for the use of forests for protection of forests. It also authorizes the Accounting Chamber to audit local budgets in part of the implementation of the powers delegated to them.
During the discussion of the document, a dispute arose over the financing of enterprises under the jurisdiction of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine: the budget committee and coalition factions proposed to send part of the profits of these enterprises to the national budget on a general basis, while the opposition factions of the Radical Party and Batkivshchyna, as well as the Vidrodzhennia group insisted on leaving this profit to these enterprises. As a result, the parliament agreed to leave these funds to the state-run unitary enterprises under the authority of the National Academy of Sciences until 2023, so that they channel them exclusively to scientific activities, innovations and expansion of their own material and technical base.
