Finance Minister Sergiy Marchenko said that the country's needs sometimes do not coincide with its capabilities, so it is necessary to raise UAH 500 billion for defense spending, part of which will be covered by additional sources of income, namely tax increases. He said this during a telethon, UNN reports.
There is no "patching holes" in the budget. There is a war in our country and our needs are sometimes not commensurate with our capabilities. Over the past six months, we have been financing all the needs of the Ministry of Defense at a high level, but we had insufficient supplies of weapons, and therefore it was decided to increase defense spending. This has led to the fact that we have to close the second half of the year and have to appeal to the Verkhovna Rada to increase defense spending by UAH 500 billion
According to him, this decision is due to the intensity of hostilities and the lack of weapons supplies from our partners.
We have, first of all, overperformance of budget revenues - UAH 76 billion, reduction of expenditures - UAH 66 billion, additional borrowings in the domestic market - UAH 220 billion, and we plan to cover the rest with additional sources of income, namely tax increases
Recall
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a draft law to increase expenditures in the 2024 state budget by UAH 500 billion, mainly for defense, as well as changes to increase taxes, which is expected to bring in UAH 140 billion.