«Someone organizes and influences», — Sienkevych commented on the rallies regarding Mykolaiv budget expenditures

The First Deputy Mayor of Mykolaiv, Vitaliy Lukov, called on the citizens to analyze the cause-and-effect relationships of the rallies with regard to the expenses of the city's budget.

He said this on the MART TV channel.

In his opinion, «someone organizes or somehow influences» today's rallies regarding the spending of budgets at different levels throughout the territory of Ukraine. Because, he says, this issue is raised at the end of the budget year, when it is difficult to allocate funds for unplanned needs.

— For some reason, it happened that this action is taking place right now and in all communities of Ukraine. This definitely leads to the idea that someone is organizing or influencing in some way. This promotion did not exist at the beginning of the financial year, when it was easy to change everything and use the funds. When we have the end of the fiscal year, no matter how much we want it, there are certain sessional processes, tender purchases, and the military units simply will not be able to physically use these funds, — said Vitalii Lukov.

Vicemer also reminded that the Verkhovna Rada will soon make a decision to withdraw the military personal income tax from communities: «The Council has already almost made a decision for us, taking these funds for the next year. We don't need to think whether to give or not to give - they are gone. And besides, there is no sense in demanding now what has already been decided."

Vitaly Lukov called on the people of Mykolaiv to analyze more the cause-and-effect relationships of the rallies and assured that the use of budget funds is monitored by the appropriate control bodies.

— Therefore, I would ask and appeal to people who read appeals in the mass media, Telegram channels: please analyze the cause-and-effect relationships of certain actions and draw a conclusion for yourself, whether it is worth taking certain steps now. If someone sees that there is an illegal use of funds by the local budget, then, believe me, there are quite a few control bodies for this. Believe me, they very actively control our expenses.

If the state saw and understood that it lacked these funds, then it would be necessary to deal with this issue at the beginning of the financial year and there would be no such moments. So let's be balanced. We are living in a very difficult period, and each of our mistakes can hurt each of us and our country in general, — he said.

Previously, residents of Mykolaiv joined the campaign in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The demonstrators demanded to send money from the city budget to help the Ukrainian army.

Prior to that, the Verkhovna Rada failed to vote in the second reading on a draft law that proposed to take away income from the personal income tax (PIT), which is paid by military personnel, from local communities.

As you know, as part of the preparation of the law «On the state budget for 2024», the Cabinet of Ministers plans to direct all revenues from the personal income tax of military personnel, 64% of which currently remain in local budgets, to the state budget. The Association of Cities of Ukraine believes that these funds will most likely be dissolved in the state budget, as well as 36% of the current personal income tax, which is administered by the Ministry of Finance. We are talking about 25.8 billion hryvnias this year and 93.7 billion hryvnias next year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal specified the day before. The relevant government bill has already been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada.

The budget of Mykolaiv will thus lose 2.7 billion hryvnias, the mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine can allocate over 517 million hryvnias to the communities of the Mykolaiv region to compensate for the loss of personal income tax from military income.

On October 6, it was reported that the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada reviewed the decision on the draft law on personal income tax from the military and made amendments : from October 1 to December 31, 2023, the «military» personal income tax is directed to the state budget in a ratio of 50% to 50% . One part of 13 billion hryvnias will go to the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine for drones, and the second part, also 13 billion hryvnias, will be directed to the Ministry of Defense for the purchase of artillery systems.

People's deputies also commented on the situation with the possible loss of the military personal income tax. In particular, People's Deputy from the Servant of the People party Artem Chornomorov criticized the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine over the decision to withdraw the personal income tax paid by the military from the budget of Mykolaiv.

During the session of the Mykolaiv City Council, he stated that he will not support the 2024 state budget unless it is amended to leave the personal income tax paid by military personnel in front-line communities.

People's Deputy of Ukraine Maksym Dyrdin announced that he will not make any amendments to the 2024 state budget for the Mykolaiv region. Unlike his colleague, People's Deputy Oleksandr Pasichnyi said that he is working on making amendments to the state budget for 2024 in order to balance the revenues of the city of Mykolaiv with subsidies after the loss of personal income tax (PIT), which is paid by the military.

People's Deputy of Ukraine Ihor Nehulevskyi said that he supports the removal of the military personal income tax (PIT) from the budgets of communities, because now the priority is the victory of Ukraine, so all other issues, including the everyday needs of communities, should be put on the back burner.