During discussion of this Bill, Committee Members offered several relevant criticisms and proposals which they resolved to forward to The Budget Committee.
The Committee calls for the replacement of an unreliable source of The State Budget Special Purpose Fund, from monies received from the sale of agricultural land to the amount of 2.5 billion Hryvnias (the Legislation required to create a land market has not yet been adopted), assigned to the following Budget programmes:
- 100.0 million Hryvnias to finance provisions for the protection, recovery and increase in productivity of land;
- 200.0 million Hryvnias for Budget subsidies for livestock farming, and State support of crop production;
- 300.0 million Hryvnias for financial support of agri-industrial complexes through the mechanism of cheaper credit;
- 32.0 million Hryvnias for financial leasing transactions of agricultural machines of home produce;
- 1000.0 million Hryvnias for providing housing for the workers from education, culture, public health and other Budget areas, permanently living and working in villages;
- 818.0 million Hryvnias for the creation of Food Reserve by the Agrarian Fund;
- 50.0 million Hryvnias for financial leasing transactions of the fishing fleet.
It is envisaged that the above expenditure, according to the Committee Members, will be provided from The State Budget General Fund.
The Committee considers it necessary that the special VAT Taxation regimes for agricultural manufacturers are (instead of only temporarily, until 1 January 2009) extended until Ukraine has joined The WTO, as suggested in The Draft State Budget. To procure further growth in the rural road network, expenditure should also be allowed for towards the construction and reconstruction of access roads to rural localities, to an amount of at least 30 per cent of the overall expenditure envisaged towards the construction of road in general.
Renovation of the Programme to cover the expenditure borne by agri-industrial complex businesses towards the construction of social facilities in villages is also suggested, with the relevant expenditure totalling 100 million Hryvnias sourced from The State Budget General Fund.
The Committee Members consider the amendments to Clauses 15, 171, 84, 127, 128 of the Land Code as contradicting with Clause 149 of the same. The text added to Clause 128 of The Land Code, concerning the laying down of a procedure for the sale of agricultural lands by The Cabinet of Ministers, contradicts Clause 14 of The Constitution of Ukraine and Paragraph 15 of ‘Transitory Provisions´ of The Land Code.
The Committee feels that the proposed wording of Clause 16 of The Land Code does not take into account the problem which will arise from handing over land plots for the extraction of natural resources, and leasing land plots for agricultural purposes. Therefore this Clause should read: ‘The acquisition of Leasing Rights for non-agricultural land plots in State and Municipal property should be effected at auction´.
The Committee Members emphasised the lack of economic justification for the amendments to Clause 21 of the Law, ‘On the Land Lease´, providing for a 45-fold rise in the current lower limit of the rent for land plots belonging to all categories, other than agricultural land, within built-up areas in which a pecuniary valuation of land has not been carried out.
The Committee Members also criticised several other parts of this Bill.