Finance ministry denies accusation of scanty financing of Kyiv's city budget in 2013

The Finance Ministry of Ukraine has denied Head of Kyiv City Administration Oleksandr Popov's accusations of the insufficient financing of the Kyiv's city budget in 2013, adding that the realistic indicator of its revenues growth in 2013 by 10.8% were agreed with representatives of the city council at consensus meetings at the ministry.

According to a posting on the Finance Ministry's Web site, the planned pace of growth in revenues of the Kyiv's city budget for 2013 are the lowest compared to the indicators of the past years. According to assessments of experts, if the revenues remain at the level of 2011-2012, they amount to an additional UAH 600 million.

"The city budget's revenues will grow by 114.9% compared to 2012 [the average indicator in Ukraine is 109.1%], and the wage share of expenses fell by 7.9%. The city budget has the resource for paying wages to budget organizations' employees," the ministry said.

The Finance Ministry said that expenses on the fulfillment of the functions of the capital for 2013 were increased by UAH 850 million, including UAH 750 million for the construction of the Kurenivsko-Chervonoarmiyska subway line from the Vystavkovy Tsentr station to Odeska Ploscha in the Holosiyivsky district, the construction of the Podilsky bridge across the Dnipro River and the reconstruction of the transport interchange on the Poshtova Ploscha.

The Kyiv's budget will additionally obtain UAH 128.3 million to execute own functions.

The Finance Ministry said that if Kyiv's authorities take measures on improvement of payment administration (land rent rates, local taxes and duties), the city could additionally receive at least UAH 850 million, which were not taken into the calculated indicators.

As reported, Head of Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Popov told Interfax-Ukraine that he hopes that the figures in the 2013 budget for Kyiv will be revised. He noted that the figures in the 2013 budget for Kyiv have not been discussed with the Kyiv authorities.

Previously Popov said that depriving Kyiv of half of the tax on individuals' income, as foreseen in the 2013 national budget, would lead to the city's general fund having a deficit of UAH 5 billion. In addition, according to Popov, Kyiv will not be able to implement its programs in 2013 without reviewing relations between the Kyiv city budget and the national budget.