Zelensky announces bills to optimize local budget receipts

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the initiation, together with the government and parliament, of a number of bills to optimize receipts of the regional authorities' budgets.

"Together with the government and parliament, we will initiate bills on optimizing receipts of local budgets, in particular, on improving land payments, property tax, personal income, as well as unified and transport taxes," Zelensky said, speaking at a meeting of the Local Authorities Chamber of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Ukraine in Khmelnytsky on Thursday.

He said that "this is not about increasing taxes." "People should not suffer," the president said.

Also, according to him, "it is important to improve the mechanism for the distribution of inter-budgetary transfers based on the formulas enshrined in the Budget Code of Ukraine."

The head of state added that "the reform of local self-government has just begun."

"A large-scale work at the regional and subregional levels is ahead. A very difficult process of amendments to the Constitution regarding the administrative-territorial structure, amendments to Ukrainian legislation on local self-government and amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine is ahead," he said.

In turn, Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak noted the need "to determine the formula for filling regional budgets and additional subsidies to local budgets from the state budget." "We understand this and will propose the best ways to solve this problem," he said.

Yermak added that "from the side of the deputy corps, it is planned to provide as much assistance to local governments in terms of providing local budgets with financial resources as possible."

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua