The Ukrainian parliament on Friday passed at first reading the president's draft law No. 2743 on amending the Budget Code of Ukraine on developing the institutional ability of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and banning advance payments of the NBU's profit to the budget, the adoption of which is one of the structural benchmarks of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that 267 lawmakers supported the document, while on Thursday the number of votes to adopt the draft law fell short.

First Deputy NBU Governor Oleksandr Pysaruk said that the bill would allocate the NBU's profit to replenish the official reserves to 10% of the monetary and credit liabilities and ban advance payments of profit to the budget before the annual report is approved by an auditor (in April-May).

The draft law also proposes that the imperative requirement stipulating that the NBU submits a forecast for the hryvnia exchange rate and its profit as part of the budget process should be revoked.

However, the Finance Ministry, the parliamentary profile committee and some factions opposed the proposal, and Speaker Volodymyr Groysman said that the bill was passed at first reading with the proposals to remove the above-mentioned clauses.