Verkhovna Rada passes 2013 national budget

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has passed the draft national budget of Ukraine for 2013, which was submitted by the government on December 3. The parliament added slight amendments to the document and passed unchanged the main indices in the document. 

Some 242 of the 351 MPs registered in the session hall supported this decision on Thursday.

Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Budget Valeriy Baranov said that the deficit of the 2013 national budget was approved at the level of UAH 50.42 billion, which is 30% more than the index set for 2012.

The budget revenues in 2013 are forecast at UAH 36.51 billion, which is 3% less than the indicator set for 2012, while the expenditures forecast in the budget for 2013 were reduced by 1%, to UAH 410.661 billion.

The document also foresees that excess of loans from the national budget on their return will amount to UAH 1.28 billion.

The national budget foresees the size of the direct state debt as of late 2013 at UAH 483 billion, which is 14% higher than the amount foreseen in the 2012 national budget. According to the document, the maximum size of state guarantees on loans is set in 2013 at UAH 50 billion.

As reported, the government's draft budget for 2013 is based on the forecast of GDP growth of 3.4% and inflation of 4.8%.

The government also said that revenues of the consolidated budget (the state and local budgets) would amount to UAH 463.1 billion, which is 0.5% less than the indicator set for 2012. At the same time, according to the document, the general fund will increase by 0.5% to UAH 403.2 billion, and the special fund will reduce by 6.9% to UAH 59.9 billion.