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The budget will soon be submitted to parliament for the second reading, the minister said.
Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleksandr Saenko says the draft law on the national budget for 2019 may be adopted as early as November 22, as the draft national budget has preliminary been approved by the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament.
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"We've already received preliminary approval of the draft state budget by the Verkhovna Rada along with the lawmakers' conclusions and proposals. It will soon be submitted to parliament for the second reading. We have every chance on passing the next year's nation budget on November 22 in the normal way, so that we could begin the new year without financing-related problems," he said on Radio NV on November 3.
The minister stressed that the state budget for 2019 envisages an increase in pensions, recalculation of retirement benefits for military personnel, the army's budget, and subsidies.
"In fact, the national budget, which is proposed by the government today, retains all the positive programs we had, while increasing funding of most of them," Saenko added.
Later, Ukraine's Finance Ministry said in a statement on its website that the government's consideration of the draft budget for the second reading would take place after the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Tax and Customs Policy takes a decision regarding amendments to the Tax Code and other legislative acts adopted by the Cabinet on October 31 and submitted by the government to parliament for consideration.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the bill on Ukraine's draft national budget for 2019 passed its first reading in parliament on October 18.