Yanukovych Boosts Social Spending Ahead of Ukraine Vote
KYIV, April 16 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has signed amendments to Ukraine’s 2012 state budget to boost expenditures by 33.3 billion hryvnias ($4.1 billion) ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections, Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper reported on Monday.
More than half of additional funds in the amount of 18.2 billion hryvnias ($2.2 billion) will be spent on the president’s social initiatives, the paper said.
Ukrainian news agency UNIAN has reported that budget funds will be spent on pension increments, social payments to orphans and the provision of World War Two disabled veterans with housing.
The Ukrainian government also intends to spend 6.1 billion hryvnias (about $760 million) on compensations to the holders of the former Soviet Sberbank deposits that were devalued after the launch of market reforms in ex-Soviet republics in the early 1990s.
The amendments to the Ukrainian 2012 budget were approved by the Supreme Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, on April 12. The bill was mainly supported by deputies of the ruling Party of Regions party.
Opposition MP and leader of the Front for Change party Arseniy Yatsenyuk slammed the amendments as budget overspending and an electoral program of the Party of Regions ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 2012