A record number of amendments – over 3300 – were submitted to the draft State Budget for 2026. In total, to take all of them into account, three more Ukrainian budgets would be needed. Ivan Krulko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada budget committee and a people's deputy, told UNN about this in a comment.
First, it should be noted that one of the largest numbers of amendments was submitted to next year's budget. 3339 amendments were submitted. Undoubtedly, if all these amendments were summed up, three more budgets would be needed. And accordingly, most of them, of course, were not taken into account.
Details
According to him, among the important amendments that were nevertheless taken into account for the second reading of the draft state budget for next year, is the fact that local budgets were left with 64% of personal income tax (instead of 60%, as planned).
"And these 4% of personal income tax should go to local budgets to compensate for the difference in tariffs for the production of thermal energy, heating, hot water, electricity supply, and so on. That is, all this is water supply and sewerage. That is, this is what will really allow local budgets to get through the heating season and compensate for the difference in tariffs, since the tariff mostly does not correspond to the actual cost," the people's deputy explained.
The second important point is the increase in salaries for pedagogical workers – the draft budget provides for UAH 58 billion for this, of which UAH 6 billion was added for the second reading.
Regarding whether the draft budget can be adopted today – the people's deputy gives cautious forecasts.
"As for the adoption of the budget, let's see, because the rostrum was blocked and the parliament did not work last week and yesterday. But today a committee meeting is planned. And after the committee meeting, there will be an attempt to bring the document to the hall and vote on it, whether there will be enough votes for it. We will see directly in the session hall," Krulko said.
Addition
On November 28, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated his expectation that Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, together with people's deputies, "in dialogue and unity" would ensure three things for Ukraine, the most important of which is the adoption of the 2026 Budget. The President also expected candidates for the ministers of energy and justice.
Earlier, Svyrydenko and the IMF mission, which worked in Kyiv for a new program for Ukraine, expressed hope for the adoption of the 2026 Budget by December 2.
However, this deadline was not met, against the backdrop of meetings of the monomajority faction "Servant of the People", and then - the Verkhovna Rada Conciliation Council - with government officials and the Prime Minister. A meeting of the budget committee to consider the State Budget-2026 is scheduled for December 3.