Terms were agreed with IMF without MPs, but they have to make all unpopular decisions – "Servant of People" Frolov
The Servant of the People faction has not yet discussed the government’s new bills aimed at fulfilling commitments to the IMF.
Pavlo Frolov, an MP from Servant of the People, said this in a comment to Censor.NET.
The terms were agreed upon without MPs
"But the financial situation is such that, in order for us to continue covering all social spending, we need to pass at least some of these laws. So, most likely, responsibility has to be taken here, because we are now heavily dependent on external financing. More than $40 billion in external borrowing (financing) has been factored into this year’s budget. We cannot fail to meet all these targets. This is already the responsibility of parliament," he said.
The MP noted that one of the most controversial issues in this IMF package was the taxation of individual entrepreneurs.
"But right now, we have to adopt at least something to continue negotiations with the IMF. A lot is tied to its indicators. In general, (the government - ed.) could have not agreed to this and conducted negotiations differently. But for now, I think we have few options to preserve social stability for the most vulnerable—pensioners, IDPs, etc.," Frolov noted.
Speaking about the fact that the deadlines by which the Verkhovna Rada was supposed to pass the necessary decisions are already expiring, the lawmaker stressed:
"But even if we pass the first reading or, theoretically, something in full, the funds do not arrive immediately anyway, so the financing may be pushed back until June. Therefore, of course, the next plenary week will be very important in order to make it before the IMF board meeting. I think there will still be an opportunity to discuss this, perhaps to postpone something. But, I repeat, this is about the financial stability of social payments. There is a war on. We are dependent because we do not have enough domestic revenue to cover everything. Everything we earn — taxes, customs duties, proceeds from privatization, from the use of state assets, and so on — goes to the defense and security sector. So the stability of the state, institutions, and payments is about people. We cannot stop paying them. I hope parliament will pass all this at least in the first reading. Plus, there are also projects under the Ukrainian Facility, where there may also be certain breakthroughs in fulfilling our commitments."
Answering a question about how he views the fact that the government, without consulting parliament, reached an agreement with the IMF on commitments that MPs now have to approve, he said:
"I also say that such terms were effectively agreed without MPs taking part in the negotiations. And it turns out that it is they who have to pass all the deeply unpopular decisions. So, communication and relations with the government need to be improved. This is extremely important so that situations do not arise where ministers agree to something and then MPs have no other option but to support it. This model of interaction leads to a dead end... Perhaps before the plenary week, there will be such communication between the Cabinet of Ministers and the mono-majority faction; perhaps there will be meetings between government officials and other factions, because these are important issues."
Background
- Earlier, Bloomberg reported that the International Monetary Fund had expressed concern about Ukraine’s ability to secure the remaining financing from the $8.1 billion package, as MPs are delaying the adoption of the necessary decisions in the Verkhovna Rada.
- As noted, the Rada failed to pass the government bill on the tax on Uklon and OLX. This is a commitment to the IMF.
- As a reminder, Ukraine received the first $1.5 billion tranche from the IMF under the new EFF programme.
