Victor Yushchenko has sent a letter to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych with a request to revise next year’s budget, threatening to veto it, President's press office reported. 

The President said the meticulous analysis of the draft revealed it had no clear-cut strategy of achieving proclaimed goals and, in some chapters, contradicted budget priorities declared by the government. Among these priorities are: creating conditions for the innovational development of the economy, maintaining macroeconomic stability, supporting business, reducing taxes and carrying out fair social policies. Yushchenko said these intentions coincided with his vision of budget policy and principles of the National Unity Pact.

The Head of State regards the draft as a major setback in the preservation of transparent budget management. He said many budget programs had no innovational objectives while the financing of truly innovative projects was inadequate. 

The President also said he did not want budget investments in the economy “to become the arena of political lobbyism and lead to greater dependence of local councils on the central government, outbreak of corruption and other violations.” For the draft does not say which projects will be funded and privatization plans seem unreal.

Yushchenko said the draft had no objective to reduce taxes. He also voiced his concern over the reduction of social expenses.

Thus the Head of State asked the government to revise the above-mentioned drawbacks and:

  • ensure that social programs are financed as efficiently as in 2006;
  • improve the social protection of the poor;
  • support innovations;
  • adequately finance the judicial branch to ensure its independence;
  • ensure the transparent distribution of budget investment funds and the efficiency of their use;
  • expand revenue sources, not renewing unsubstantiated privileges in Free Economic Zones and Territories of Priority Development;
  • improve budget relations and norms of distributing budget resources;
  • ensure the transparent distribution and use of budget funds;
  • distribute subventions before submitting the budget to parliament; 
  • ensure the efficiency and transparency  of privatizations, expanding the list of facilities and preparing them for auctions;
  • increase the financing of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the defense complex and cultural and health programs;
  • refrain from accumulating new debts to cover insufficient privatization profits.

“I am convinced the implementation of these recommendations will help ensure national security and protect constitutional rights of Ukrainian citizens,” he said.

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