Govt approves bill on Ukraine's state budget for 2024

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced this on the Telegram messaging app, Ukrinform reports.

"The government adopted the draft budget for 2024, with UAH 1.56 trillion as own revenues of the general fund of the budget and UAH 3.108 trillion as expenditures of the general fund," he wrote.

Shmyhal said the key priority of the bill is Ukraine's defense and security. According to him, it is planned to spend more than half of all budget funds on this sector — UAH 1.685 trillion.

"This amount is UAH 113 billion higher than this year. There will be even more weapons and equipment. More drones, ammunition, missiles. Just like this year, all funds from taxes paid by citizens and businesses will go to support our security and defense forces," he said.

Shmyhal added that the second priority of the draft state budget for 2024 is the social sphere, on which UAH 469 billion is to be spent, or UAH 25 billion more than in 2023.

The third priority, according to him, is medicine and education.

"We are allocating UAH 179 billion for the education sector, which is UAH 23 billion more than this year. UAH 202 billion for the health sector, or UAH 24 billion more than the expenditures of 2023," Shmyhal said.

He said the fourth priority was support for war veterans. He said that expenditures under this program would double from UAH 6.8 billion in 2023 to UAH 14.3 billion in 2024.

"The fifth priority is the restoration of our economy. No increase in taxes is envisaged. The government continues preferential lending programs, the eRobota program of nonrefundable grants, support for Ukrainian startups. We are also launching new programs for industrial parks, for the implementation of investment projects, for support for Ukrainian manufacturers," Shmyhal said.