Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko has describes as a PR campaign Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's pledge to continue making payments to compensate for depreciated deposits in the former Soviet savings bank (Sberbank).
“This is a PR campaign, a way of deceiving millions of people,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
He insists that the funds allocated in the budget to compensate for the depreciated deposits be paid out to the “most vulnerable strata.”
Yuschenko once again urged the Cabinet of Ministers to revise the size of the real living wage.
“I call on the government to start reviewing the living wage,” he said.
He also noted that the compensations that was promised and issued by the government to Sberbank depositors had fueled inflation.
In his opinion, the government’s inflationary forecasts will hardly become reality this year.
“Most likely, there will be no 9.5% inflation. The government’s inflationary revenues will be higher,” he said.
Yuschenko said that such PR campaigns are conducive to a lowering of the living and social standards of the public.
As was reported, Ukraine’s government approved UAH 250 million in this year’s compensation package for depreciated deposits in the former Soviet savings bank Sberbank. The cabinet passed a related resolution on May 20, 2009.
According to the document, UAH 87 million will be sent to depositors who have not received refunding of no more than UAH 1,000 per depositor, as foreseen in a cabinet resolution of January 9, 2008, in the order that they submitted information to the register of defaulted Soviet-era depositors.
In addition, UAH 157 million shall be sent to the legal heirs of depositors who died in 2005-2008, or other individuals who did not receive a refund, but no more than UAH 500 to each heir.
The government also set aside UAH 6 million to the legal heirs of insured persons who died in 2006-2008 and who did not receive compensation, but no more than UAH 500 to each heir.
All payments are due before December 25, 2009.
