The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine considers draft 2020 State Budget and submits it to the Parliament

On September 15, Oksana Markarova, Minister of Finance of Ukraine, presented a draft law "On the State Budget of Ukraine for the Year 2020" at the CMU meeting. The Cabinet of Ministers considered it, approved it and submitted it to the Parliament within the scheduled by the Constitution and the Budget Code date.

The main indicators of the draft state budget for the year 2020 are the following:

• the revenues of the state budget for 2020 (including inter-budgetary transfers) are estimated at UAH 1,079.5 billion, including the general fund - UAH 962.7 billion;
• the expenditures are projected at UAH 1170.0 billion;
• national security and defense expenditures amount to UAH 245.8 billion, which is UAH 33.8 billion more than in 2019;
• UAH 74.4 billion is planned to be allocated for the development of the road infrastructure, including the spendings on the State Road Fund at UAH 69.7 billion. The funds are planned to be allocated for the development of the network and maintenance of public roads of public importance (UAH 38.0 billion), UAH 22.2 billion will be spent on construction, reconstruction, repairment and maintenance of public roads of local importance, streets and roads of communal property in settlements; 3.2 billion UAH are envisaged for ensuring road safety in accordance with state programs; UAH 6.3 billion will be spent on the debt payments on government-backed borrowings under the state guarantees for the development of the public highway network;
• UAH 2 billion is to be allocated to support energy independence.

The purpose of the debt policy is to reduce public debt to GDP ratio to 46.7% by the end of 2020. One of the ways of achieving this ambitious goal is to gradually reduce the state budget deficit (till 2.09% of GDP in 2020) 

Public debt payments in 2020 will amount to about UAH 438.1 billion, of which public debt service payments will amount to UAH145.2 billion, and public debt redemption payments amount to UAH 292.9 billion

In 2020 the forecast of financing the state budget with the proceeds from the privatization of state property has been reduced to UAH 5 billion based on the level of preparation of the objects for privatization.

The state budget spendings on the education are planned in the amount of UAH 136.4 billion, that is 7.7 billion UAH more than in 2019. For the first time, the State Budget project foresees expenditures for the development of higher education institutions in the amount of about UAH 0.3 billion.

Total health care expenditures amount to UAH 108 billion, that is 9.8 billion more than in 2019.

Expenditures on cultural development and information sphere amount to UAH 8.6 billion, in particular, to support the activities of the Ukrainian Book Institute, UAH 0.1 billion will be spent on the support of the book publishing and popularization of Ukrainian literature in the world, UAH 2 billion will be spent on the development of Ukrainian public broadcasting.

The minimum wage will be set up at UAH 4723.

The state budget funding of the Pension Fund of Ukraine amounts to UAH 172.6 billion.

The Cabinet of Ministers also approved the draft law "On Amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine" designed to regulate issues related to the preparation of the draft Law on the State Budget of Ukraine for 2020 and amendments to the legislation.