People's Deputy of Ukraine Serhiy Slabenko (non-affiliated) held a press conference in Lutsk, at which he analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of the State Budget of Ukraine adopted for 2004.
As the people's deputy claims, today in Ukraine 3 out of 20 working people receive a salary lower than the minimum. "The already low level of social standards in the government's version of the 2004 budget draft has been reduced to practically zero, because for the first time in the history of independent Ukraine a reduction in the minimum wage from 237 to 205 hryvnias per month is envisaged. This is happening against the backdrop of an unprecedented rise in prices for bread, food products and basic necessities over the past decade," states Serhiy Slabenko.
"Meanwhile," notes People's Deputy Serhiy Slabenko, "such a, so to speak, 'social orientation' of the country's main financial document for the next year is justified by government representatives by an increase in the quantitative indicators of funding for the majority of budget items. It is worth analyzing the proportional ratio of allocation of funds for social needs this year and the expenditures envisaged by the government for the next year, and it immediately becomes clear that there will actually not be enough money to implement social programs."
Thus, according to Mr. Slabenko, the revenue part of the budget grew by approximately 20 percent compared to 2003, while funding for certain budget items remained at last year's level.
According to the people's deputy, the 2004 budget will not become a development budget simply because at a time when teachers, doctors, pensioners and low-income citizens will be placed beyond the threshold of survival (funding for the Pension Fund has been reduced by 0.6 billion hryvnias), expenditures for law enforcement agencies have been increased by more than a billion hryvnias and one can predict that they will be carried out rhythmically.
It is obvious that local budgets will also suffer from financial hardship, since the 1.2 billion hryvnias allocated by the government are at least another equal amount short to avoid arrears in various payments at the local level. True, funding for certain local budgets has been increased without proper justification. It is precisely this fact that testifies to the more political nature of the adoption of Ukraine's financial constitution for the next year, rather than to a pragmatic approach to solving social problems in the state.