Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada has passed bill No. 3038 that sends 5% of oil, gas and gas condensate royalty to local budgets starting from 2018.

Some 259 members of parliament backed the document, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported.

According to the bill, 2% of the royalty will be sent to regional budget, 2% to district budgets and 1% to the budgets of local self-government agencies where the fields are located. The exception was made for the budgets of cities of republican and regional importance and budgets of merged communities that will receive 3%.

At the same time, 95% of the royalty will be sent to the general fund of the national budget. 100% of the royalty will be sent to the national budget if deposits are extracted on the continental shelf and/or the exclusive (marine) economic zone.

The lawmakers decided to launch the requirement in 2018, not 2017 aiming at not misbalancing the 2017 national budget. Its loss could have reached UAH 2.4 billion.