Support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, education, medicine and social protection, critical infrastructure and a reserve fund (liquidation of the consequences of missile strikes) are the main directions to which budget funds of the Lviv community are planned to be directed in 2024.
The decision regarding the budget of the Lviv City Territorial Community at the session today, December 27, was supported by the majority of elected officials in the session hall.
The size of the budget for 2024 is 13 billion hryvnias (without transfers). Despite the fact that the military personal income tax will be removed from the city budget, supporting the military remains a city priority. Next year, expenses for the support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the amount of 1 billion hryvnias will be saved. Four other areas of spending: support of critical infrastructure, medicine and social protection, education and support of the reserve fund, that is, liquidation of the consequences of missile attacks.
The 2024 budget will be smaller than this year’s. Therefore, a number of expenses had to be limited, because it is primarily about the military budget.
Main indicators:
support of the Armed Forces – UAH 1 billion for the purchase of equipment and facilities;
education – UAH 4.4 billion;
medicine, rehabilitation and social protection – UAH 851 million;
critical infrastructure – UAH 3 billion;
reserve fund (liquidation of the consequences of enemy attacks) – UAH 350 million.
As noted by Viktoriya Dovzhik, director of the financial policy department of the Lviv City Council, the changes made to the budget code and the adopted state budget for 2024 put the Lviv City Council within certain limits.
“First of all, our income for this year is decreasing. Military personal income tax will not be included in local budgets. This is a tax on the income of individuals from all employees not only in military units who receive a salary, but also various power structures: the Security Service of Ukraine, the Prosecutor’s Office, the National Police, the National Guard, as well as those educational institutions that train employees for these structures. For us, this is a loss of about 1.8 billion. At the same time, we are left with a reverse subsidy of 1.3 billion, but the expenses for reimbursement of economically unregulated heat tariffs, the payment of which is entrusted to local councils, are increasing. That is, support for heat supply enterprises, where we actually pay for the population the difference that people would have to pay if the tariffs were set economically justified. For these purposes, 874 million hryvnias are provided, while the real need is 1.2 billion hryvnias.
The budget also provides for a large number of different social programs to support different categories of the population, in particular, military families.
The key thing is that despite the fact that the revenue part is decreasing, we are leaving UAH 1 billion to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as it was before.
In general, the largest part of expenditures, as always, is provided for the education sector. These are not only schools, but also kindergartens, cultural sphere, theaters, libraries, various cultural institutions, public houses.
So, our budget can be safely called a social budget, aimed primarily at providing for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, providing for the social and cultural sphere that works in Lviv, and providing for critical infrastructure,” said Viktoriya Dovzhik.