"We were united by a disaster that we are trying to prevent - the approval of the state budget of Ukraine for 2004 in today's government edition. Contrary to the government's promises, there is nothing social, oriented toward people's well-being in this budget," said Volodymyr Bondar at a press conference for Volyn media, which took place with the participation of a representative of the "Batkivshchyna" association, Mykola Potapchuk.
The people's deputy believes that today's Government is trying to take another step toward the impoverishment of the people of Ukraine, as evidenced by the reduction of the minimum wage from 237 hryvnias to 205 hryvnias per month. According to Volodymyr Bondar, "this says, first of all, that there has never been a worse government than today's in the history of Ukraine." The people's deputy is concerned by the government's insistence on adopting this budget without a third reading, immediately as a whole, thus getting rid of the influence of opposition factions on it. According to Volodymyr Bondar, this violates the budget adoption procedure. The representative of "Our Ukraine" in the Volyn region sees the reasons for such a situation as preparation for next year's elections: "The Government is hiding money from the people in those articles that are openly lobbyist - this is the uneven distribution among the regions of Ukraine, the unfounded program "Coal of Ukraine," which subsidizes the unprofitable coal industry, and in no way provides for the social interests of miners." At the same time, the people's elected representative noted that this budget provides for an increase in funding for law enforcement agencies and government bodies, while at the same time social articles, contributions to the pension fund, and funding for state reserve measures for purchases on the food products market are being reduced.
Volodymyr Bondar also noted that the problems of the budget proposed by the Government are obvious to representatives of the majority as well, since the imperfection of the main financial document was discussed by the first secretary of the regional organization of the SDPU(o), Lutsk city mayor Anton Kryvytskyi, and the head of the finance department of the Lutsk city executive committee, Oleh Ishchuk. "It is unclear why the position of the majority is not coordinated with representatives of regional branches," the deputy noted.
Volodymyr Bondar emphasized the impossibility of unjustified redistribution of state funds in favor of law enforcement agencies and individual regions at the expense of the impoverishment of the people. The representative of "Our Ukraine" called on Volyn residents to take part in a protest action in front of the Verkhovna Rada, thereby declaring their position to the deputies who will vote for the anti-people budget.
The head of the "Batkivshchyna" association in the Volyn region, Mykola Potapchuk, emphasized that according to the opposition's calculations, "during the preparation of the draft law on the state budget, there was manipulation of figures: 5 billion hryvnias were hidden from the people." He appealed to the deputies not to "go against their constituents and vote for a truly social budget, and not for an anti-people budget, under which Ukrainians will live even worse. At the same time, Mykola Leontiiovych appealed to the public not to allow decisions against themselves to be adopted through their silence.