Before raising taxes, government must cut billions in spending on telethon and road construction - Poroshenko
Before raising the tax burden on Ukrainians, the government should explain how much money the state budget needs, for what purposes, and whether the possibilities of reducing inappropriate expenses during the war have been depleted.
This was stated by Petro Poroshenko during a briefing, Censor.NET reports with reference to the ES press service.
The politician also noted that the growth of the military fee would put a significant burden on people's legal income, reduce purchasing power and ultimately hit the economy.
"The authorities started with a shocking figure - allegedly, the country urgently needs UAH 500 billion to finance the army. Otherwise, in August and September, the army will be left without funding, and soldiers will be left without salaries," Poroshenko reminded. He noted that later it was said to be UAH 140 billion, and after the meeting of the Tax Committee the amount changed again - to UAH 30 billion.
"The government must clearly justify what is spent on salaries for soldiers, what is spent on the purchase of weapons and ammunition, FPV and electronic warfare equipment, and when it will be delivered. What is spent on the construction of fortifications. These approved and declared expenditures must be untouched," the ES leader is convinced.
"The first thing we have to start with is cutting unnecessary spending. How can you raise taxes on the most vulnerable segments of the population when you can easily spend 2 billion on a "single" marathon that no one needs? Hundreds of millions to finance the Rada TV channel - this has never been voted on in the Verkhovna Rada, but is spent allegedly for the needs of the parliament. The third position is the financing of road construction. 17 billion this year, including the frontline areas in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk regions. What are you doing and why are you taking this money away from the construction of fortifications," Poroshenko said.
The politician also called for a reduction in the cost of maintaining the state apparatus. "There are 8 million fewer people in the country. And if the number of people to whom the government must provide services is decreasing, there should be a corresponding reduction in the number of authorities," Poroshenko said.
He also criticized the so-called "national cashback" idea, which requires at least UAH 3 billion from the budget: "Are you taking away from teachers, doctors, cleaners, nurses, and nurses to give them cashback? Remove funding for industrial parks. Remove funding for such incentives that destroy the competitive environment in Ukraine."
"The principle of justice requires that no salary in Ukraine can be higher than the salary of a soldier at the front. A soldier at the front receives an additional payment of 100 thousand hryvnias. No one in Ukraine can receive more than a soldier on the front line in terms of payments from the state budget or state-owned enterprises, including employees of supervisory boards of railways and banks," Poroshenko emphasized. He also called for making information about officials' salaries public.
"We have no right to adopt the budget until the BES and the Accounting Chamber are rebooted, and the customs is made transparent," Poroshenko emphasized.
According to the ES leader, military personal income tax and military fees should be accumulated on a special account exclusively for the needs of the Defense Forces. "In order to ensure transparency in the use of funds, our political team demands that all funding for the army through amendments to the Budget Code and the law "On the State Budget" be financed exclusively through a special fund. If you need money exclusively and only to finance the Armed Forces, send it to the special fund of the military fee and distribute it exclusively for the goals and objectives defined by law," Poroshenko said.
According to him, the relevant legislative initiatives will be submitted to the parliament in the coming days.
