Rada failing to meet deadline for 2021 Budget adoption – Hetmantsev

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's Parliament, in considering the draft state budget for 2021, is failing to meet the deadlines established by the Budget Code, says Chairman of the Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Daniil Hetmantsev.

"We will obviously fail to meet the deadline set by the Budget Code. This is evident already. Unfortunately, and we must apologize to the people, we will not comply with the deadline. You know, we have a deadline set until December 1. Unfortunately, we won't be able to do it this year, obviously," Hetmantsev told reporters on Monday, November 16.

Read alsoPM Shmyhal: Budget deficit one of Europe's lowestOnly in early December will the Verkhovna Rada receive a draft budget from government before considering it at second reading.

National Budget 2021: Key figures

• GDP growth: +4.6%;
• Average rate: UAH 29.1 / USD;
• State budget revenues: Almost UAH 1.1 trillion;
• State budget expenditures: UAH 1.3 trillion; and
• Budget deficit: UAH 270 billion.

Background

On September 14, the Cabinet approved the draft state budget for 2021.

On September 18, 2020, the Cabinet submitted to Parliament the draft state budget for 2021.

Deputy Chairman of the Holos faction Zheleznyak said the deputies submitted over 2,400 amendments to the draft.

On October 16, 2020, the meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Budgetary Issues, which was set to endorse amendments, was called off.

On October 29, 2020, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, First Deputy Chairman of the Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, announced that the consideration of the draft at first reading was tentatively scheduled for November 5.