Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy has signed bill No. 7000 on the state budget of Ukraine for 2018, the official website of the parliament reported.
The bill was signed and sent for enactment to Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko on Dec. 22.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada passed bill No. 7000 on the state budget of Ukraine for 2018 on Dec. 8, with 273 votes.
On Dec. 20, the parliament voted down draft resolution No. 7000-P proposing to scrap the bill on the state budget for 2018.
On Dec. 21, lawmakers removed inconsistencies in the text of the adopted bill on ensuring the balance of budget revenues in 2018 in terms of payments of one-time cash assistance to military upon their dismissal from service.
The state budget for 2018 is based on the forecast of GDP growth of 3 percent with inflation of 9 percent, as well as on the hryvnia exchange rate of Hr 30.1/$1.
A document with revenues of Hr 913.6 billion and expenditures of Hr 988.6, which is 18.4 percent and 17.5 percent respectively higher than in the 2017 state budget, was put to the vote. The revenues to the general fund are to be increased by 19.6 percent to Hr 839.8 billion, the expenses by 18.1 percent, to Hr 906.7 billion.
he ceiling for the state budget deficit is set at Hr 81.8 billion, which is only 5.4 percent higher than in the state budget for 2017. The deficit of the general fund is to shrink by 1 percent to Hr 61.7 billion compared to this year.
Taking into account upgrading the nominal gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for next year by the government for the bill’s second reading, from Hr 3.25 trillion to Hr 3.33 trillion, the deficit will make 2.46 percent of GDP, which meets the requirements of the program of cooperation with the International Monetary Fund.
The minimum wage in Ukraine is to grow from Jan. 1, 2018, by 16.3 percent to Hr 3,723 per month, and the government has been also instructed to study the possibility of increasing it after the first quarter of next year.
The subsistence minimum is set at Hr 1,700 from Jan. 1, 2018, Hr 1,777 from July 1, and Hr 1,853 from Dec. 1.
