29 May 2023 18:34

Ukraine spent 1.5 bln hryvni to stimulate private investment in agriculture in 2022 - Accounting Chamber

MOSCOW. May 29 (Interfax) - Over 1.5 billion hryvni was allotted for implementing a program for encouraging private investment in the Ukrainian agricultural sector in 2022, Ukrainian media said citing a statement on the Accounting Chamber's website.

This amount includes 1.4 billion hryvni in an advance loan from the World Bank, 62.5 million hryvni as a subvention distributed for the development of comprehensive plans for the spatial development of territorial communities in 2021, and 2.5 million hryvni as expenses for the formation and functioning of a free assistance system.

The World Bank increased the advance loan from $20 million to $50 million at the Finance Ministry's request in March 2022, the Accounting Chamber said. The funds were aimed at improving the efficiency and transparency of public services provided to farmers, developing the agricultural sector, and ensuring food security in Ukraine amid the crisis.

The general budget appropriations for the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, the Regional Development Ministry, the State Service for Geodesy, Cartography, and Cadaster, and the Justice Ministry, as the agencies entitled to implement the program, have been reduced by 557 million hryvni, and this sum was transferred to the reserve fund.

The Accounting Chamber found that the loan agreement was amended as regards the program's restructuring, including for optimizing the effective indicators. The Finance Ministry/the Entrepreneurship Development Fund has been added to the list of agencies in charge of the program's implementation.

"In 2022, the agencies implementing the program utilized the funds from the state budget in all significant aspects [...] Financial and business activities complied with the regulations on the use of budget funds," it said.

A total of 6,964 farmers received financial support in the amount of 3.5 billion hryvni for the sowing campaign under the 5-7-9 loan program in 2022, while the program envisioned that 4,000 farmers were to receive such support, it said.

As of January 1, 2023, unused funds left from the financing under the program on the accounts of local budgets totaled 48.2 million hryvni, including 37.8 million hryvni on accounts of 18 regional military administrations and 10.4 million hryvni on accounts of eight territorial communities, the Accounting Chamber said.