Financing for Naftogaz gas purchases with Canadian $350 mln loan not included in budget amendments - Rada deputy

MOSCOW. Aug 16 (Interfax) - Ukraine's parliament has not included the allocation of UAH12.7 billion (about $350 million) for Naftogaz Ukraine to buy natural gas for the 2022-2023 heating season in the final version of a bill to amend the state budget for this year.

"The amendment about UAH12.7 billion for Naftogaz to buy gas with a loan from the Canadian government was not included in the final version," Rada deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on his Telegram channel.

Zheleznyak said earlier that the Verkhovna Rada's budget committee had approved a bill to increase state budget spending in 2022 by UAH270 billion (about $7.4 billion at the current exchange rate), including an additional UAH12.7 billion for Naftogaz to buy gas to get through the upcoming heating season.

According to the copy of the bill cited by Zheleznyak, these expenditures would be covered by increasing government foreign borrowing by this amount in the general fund of the state budget. He said this referred to a ten-year loan from Canada at 1.6%. Ukraine's budget is split into a general fund, which collects taxes and fees and funds the main expenditures, and a special fund for targeted funding.

The official exchange rate on August 15 was UAH36.57/$1.