No real national budget surplus now – Jaresko
The surplus of the national budget in January-April 2015 was linked to the irregularity of sending revenues and financing expenses and the unplanned devaluation of the hryvnia in the first quarter of 2015, Finance Minister of Ukraine Natalie Jaresko has said.
"We don’t have surplus. I ask not to use this word," she told reporters on the sidelines of the 8th Kyiv Security Forum on May 29.
She said that in the fourth quarter the budget is to pay large subsidies to the public due to the increase of energy tariffs.
"If we gather [revenues] now, the funds will be used in the fourth quarter – this is not a surplus," Jaresko said.
She also said that growth in value added tax (VAT) payments from imports was temporary, as the hryvnia exchange rate has strengthened.
"[Growth of VAT on imports] is not a trend. We don’t expect that this will happen in Q3 and Q4 2015, as we expect that the exchange rate would be stable… We collected more VAT, but now we are to pay it more, the budget did not plan this increase," she said.
The Finance Ministry previously said that the surplus of the general fund of Ukraine's national budget in April 2015 totaled UAH 5.06 billion, which is 63% down from March 2015. In January-April 2015, the surplus was UAH 8.8 billion.
