Three committees are today in focus:
Committee on Construction, Urban Development, Housing and Communal Services
…recommends the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to take the bill No.6403 on the first reading. The draft bill amends the law on urban development regulations with the aim to deregulate and facilitate doing business, enhance investment appeal in construction sphere. The bill provides for introduction of some new definitions (“spatial planning”, “urban development needs”, “joint interests” etc.), updating others, implementation of new kinds of documentation and so on. The draft bill also proposes to create a multilevel state register for spatial planning, to empower the Cabinet to solely decide upon any changes to the general territory planning scheme, to set state requirements for territory use, to implement a procedure to consider public interests in urban development by means of public discussions etc. The committeemen approved the draft bill on the first reading.
Committee on Environmental Policy, Nature Resources Utilization and Elimination of the Consequences of Chornobyl Catastrophe
…has scrutinized its part of the draft Key Areas of the Budgetary Policy for the period from 2018 till 2020. The explanatory note to the draft document No.6591 names the main goals of the budget policy for 2018-2020 to be provision of a balanced mid-term state budget, a budgetary policy consistency, a predictable reallotment of state funds by main budget entities entitled to manage the resources. The committee has repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that most significant reasons for retrenching expenditures on environmental measures had been elimination of the state and local environmental protection funds along with the switching of ecology tax to state and local budgets. In view of the above, to avoid further environmental deterioration, the first and foremost task is to switch the a.m. funds back.
All the national environmental programmes are being poorly executed for lack of comprehensive approach and proper financing. It is thus well worth day by day monitoring over the executive powers in charge, setting the same continuous control to the finance.
The State Service for Geology and Mineral Resources of Ukraine is assigned to be the major entity entitled to manage the state funds allotted for the National mineral and raw-material base development programme, not being at the same time an allottee of the above programme finance. To add, this year programme was funded at 6-7% against the budgeted expenses.
The National target programme “Potable water of Ukraine 2011-2020” was cancelled in 2014, whereas 70% of the surface and a great deal of underground waters are not today drinkable due to man-induced pollution. The committee sees it worth reviving the water programme as one of the most socially-significant intentions.
Pursuant to the 2016 resolution the committee considers it appropriate to work out and finance in full the national programme aimed to overcome the Chornobyl fallout consequences for the period from 2017 to 2021 and until 2026 correspondingly. The hotspot of the motion is that it is pre-planned to move the greater part of social benefits and subsidies to local self-government authorities to finance. Most of them will be ruined with this heavy burden. It is worth thus, as the committee considers, sticking to the public financing within the limits declared.
Another painful problem is the cutback in pensionary payments entailing a lower social protection for the retirees under galloping inflation. Abolishment of retirement pensions for the civil servants employed is near to kill motivation to go on government work. Moreover, it looks quite discriminating since many of them pay higher pension deductions.
A further stumbling block to a healthy nation is Ukraine’s ‘ancient’ system of health-resort treatment and rehabilitation, which ought to be revived as soon as possible.
As the environmental budget is quite narrow it is vital to try hard to find alternative finance sources for a wide range of ecological projects at stake. With this in mind, the lawmakers ought to urgently ensure favourable taxation, loan-granting, investment climate capable of unhindered international and private fund-raising, launching of environmentally friendly and energy-saving productions.
Committee on Budget
…recommends the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to present Report of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine 2016 for consideration at a plenary meeting. The appropriate bill No.6629 was accepted at the committee sitting.