You're reading: Cabinet asking parliament to increase expenses on defense by Hr 9.1 billion in 2014

The difficult situation in the eastern regions of Ukraine requires the increase in expenses of the reserve fund of the national budget for 2014 by Hr 11 billion: by Hr 9.1 billion to strengthen defense and by Hr 1.9 billion to restore the destroyed infrastructure in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the Cabinet of Ministers has reported.

The relevant proposal is stipulated in the government’s draft
amendments to the national budget for 2014 posted on the Web site of the
parliament on Wednesday, July 30.

The cabinet also proposed increasing revenues of the national budget
by Hr 13.5 billion thanks to amendments to the tax laws, in particular,
the introduction of the total general fee of 1.5 percent of the wage fund (the
military fee), which is to bring Hr 2.9 billion.

In addition, the government expects that another Hr 3.3 billion will
come from 15 percent taxation of income from deposits and other incomes from
capital, Hr 4.8 billion will be received from the increase in the
royalty on the use of deposits for extraction of oil and gas condensate
and natural gas, Hr 1.8 billion – from the prolongation of the regime
of exempting transactions on exports of grain and industrial crops from
value added tax until Jan. 1, 2015 and Hr 4 billion – from the
European Union.

In addition, it is proposed that the expenses of the national budget
are cut by Hr 7 billion, including thanks to the removing of Hr 1
billion from expenses on the coal sector and from the regional
development fund and cutting the transfer to the Pension Fund thanks to
compensation of the transfer from other social funds.

The cabinet also plans to transfer Hr 2 billion of the ecological tax from the special fund to the general fund.