REUTERS
The reduction will be compensated by a cut in expenses on servicing the country's state debt.
The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has passed a bill on amendments to the 2019 national budget under which the planned budget revenue will be reduced by UAH 20 billion, or US$800 million.
Some 291 lawmakers voted for the adoption of corresponding bill No. 2283 in the second reading and as a whole, taking into account Budget Committee proposals with the necessary minimum of 226 votes, an UNIAN correspondent said.
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According to the explanatory note to the bill, the decrease in the revenue plan, which is related to a shortfall of receipts of value-added tax (VAT) on imported goods and import duties as a result of the above-target strengthening of the hryvnia, will be offset by a reduction in state debt servicing costs.
The draft law also provides for an increase in funding for aviation security, coal mines, national security and defense, an emergency response fund, social protection of victims of the Chornobyl disaster, rehabilitation of persons with disabilities, the construction of affordable housing, loans to internally displaced persons and Donbas war veterans for the purchase of housing.
During the discussion of the bill, Budget Committee representative Lesia Zaburanna said that the committee had received 62 amendments for the second reading and she proposed that 20 of them be taken into account.
"The Budget Committee has decided to recommend that the Verkhovna Rada adopt draft law No. 2283 in the second reading, and as a whole, as the final version of the law in the comparative table with proposed changes in budget indicators," she quoted the committee's decision.
In addition to the amendments proposed by the committee, the Ukrainian lawmakers also backed amendment No. 7 with 292 votes, which allows the city of Kyiv not to return funds to the national budget.
As UNIAN reported, according to the State Treasury Service of Ukraine, the country's national budget for January-September 2019 received UAH 739.680 billion, or US$29.6 billion, which is 4.8% lower than the planned figure for the said period, but 9.6% higher than the actual figure for the same period last year.