«We are considering all options for savings», — said Sienkеvych about the possible reduction of officials in Mykolaiv

In Mykolaiv, the authorities are considering several ways to reduce costs from the budget in case of withdrawal of income from the military personal income tax.

The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, said this in a comment to «NikVesti».

In particular, it may be about reducing the number of city council staff and reducing their salaries. The final decision will be made after the approval of the state budget of Ukraine for 2024.

— We are considering all options for saving budget funds, including the reduction (of the staff of officials — note) and the reduction of wages within the framework of current legislation. Since the state budget is still unfinished, we cannot predict what the city of Mykolaiv will have, — said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

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.

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