The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Budget rejected almost all the proposals of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council, supported by key agricultural associations. These proposals were made in order to improve the state support to the agrarian sector in 2019.

Thus, the Parliament approved in the first reading a draft budget of 2019 in the wording that discriminates agricultural producers and actually duplicates the mistakes of this year, when UAH 6.3 billion allocated to support domestic agricultural producers were not actually used. Thus, according to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, as of August 20, only UAH 777 million were used, which is 12% of the total.

"In general, we characterize the situation in the part of state support to the agrarian sector as catastrophic, since such a low level of utilization of allocated funds in the history of Ukrainian agribusiness has not yet been, it is a precedent. The reason for this is the redistribution of subsidies to those areas that are not in demand, and, conversely, the refusal to finance the necessary directions and programs. In addition, there are various administrative obstacles to obtaining agricultural producers ", - noted the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Agricultural Council Mikhail Sokolov.

Thus, the draft budget was included in the UAC proposal to increase the amount of funds aimed at compensating interest rates on loans. However, at the same time deputies refused to introduce restrictions, proposed by the UAC, in the amount of no more than 10 million USD compensation in one hand. As a result, these funds will again be distributed among the largest players in the market and will not be received by small and medium agribusiness.

"Thus, we can say that the parliamentary budget committee and the Verkhovna Rada have refused to limit the amount of funds that can be obtained by the largest agricultural holdings, as well as to reduce inefficient programs and directions. In the end, this will lead to the fact that next year the money allocated for state support to the AIC will in fact remain unused", - explained Sokolov.

In addition, in the approved document were supported two further amendments proposed by a group of deputies headed by a member of the party group "Party "Vidrodzhennya" Oleg Kulinich.

In particular:

• Reduce the financing of partial compensation of the cost of purchased agricultural machinery of domestic production;
• Rename the program of state support to the livestock sector, which will allow financing at the expense of funds allocated for its realization, production, storage and processing of all agricultural products. In fact, this amendment will allow financing the construction and reconstruction of agricultural holdings of oil extraction plants, elevators, etc.

At the same time, the really important amendments proposed by the UAC and other agrarian associations were rejected.

It is worth noting that the deputies from the political parties "All-Ukrainian Association " Batkivshchyna" ,"Association “Samopomich” and "Opozytsiynyy blok" during the meeting of the budget committee began to protect the proposals of agrarian associations and did not support the vote on the draft Resolution on conclusions and proposals to the draft Law of Ukraine on the State Budget of Ukraine for 2019.

We remind that the UAC and other agrarian associations within the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Forum have developed a number of proposals to improve the state support to the agro-industrial complex, as stipulated in the draft budget-2019. The main ones are:

1. To increase financing of the compensation program for loans from 127 million UAH to at least UAH 700-800 million with the simultaneous introduction of a compensation limit of UAC 10 million in one hand. Thus, this money would be guaranteed to the average and small farmers.
2. To increase financing of the program "quasi-accumulation of VAT" from 0 to 1,8-2 billion UAH with the simultaneous change in the principle of its distribution. This would greatly facilitate the work of accountants and exclude the machinations and distortions, due to which many farms in 2017 under this program almost did not receive funds. At the same time there was a restriction on the payment in one hands no more than 150 million UAH.
3. To pay out the “farmer’s billion” program not only among those who have the status of a farm, but among all farmers who process less than 500 hectares. It was proposed to abandon a bunch of complex programs, on which the official at his discretion decided who will be the recipient of the grant. Instead, introduce the allocation of allocated funds in proportion to the legal proceeds from the sale of agricultural products.

The corresponding amendments were submitted with minor differences by the people's deputies: Ivan Miroshnichenko ("Association “Samopomich”), Tetyana Ostrikova ("Association “Samopomich”), Yuri Voropayev ("Opozytsiynyy blok"), also with a number of more significant differences - a group of people's deputies headed by Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations Oleksandr Bakumenko.