Rada supports budget bill in first reading

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted as a whole the bill No. 7000-P "On the conclusions and proposals to the draft Law of Ukraine on the State Budget of Ukraine for 2018" which means that the budget bill for 2018 was endorsed in the first reading.

As reported by the parliamentary correspondent for Censor.NET, 260 lawmakers cast their votes for the bill.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine proposed the Verkhovna Rada to adopt the state budget for 2018 with revenues amounting to 877 billion hryvnia (about $32.5 billion) and 948.1 billion hryvnia in expenditures.

The bill envisages monthly subsistence rate at 1,700 hryvnia from Jan. 1, 2018; 1,777 hryvnia from July 1; 1,853 hryvnia from Dec. 1.

The general government deficit is expected to be about 77.9 billion hryvnia.

The gross government debt was set at 1.999 trillion hryvnia. The draft state budget-2018 was based on the expected exchange rate of 30.1 hryvnia to $1 by the end of 2018.