KIEV ON EVE OF BUDGET DEBATE.
KIEV ON EVE OF BUDGET DEBATE.
Ukrainian parliament chairman Oleksandr Moroz has promised a very charged debate when the chamber begins consideration this week of the government’s proposed budget for 1996. Moroz specifically objected to a “lack of state control over economic processes.” The draft sets the budget deficit at 6 percent of GNP, or 427 trillion karbovantsi, to be covered by the selling of state securities, external financing, and National Bank credits. Primary sources of revenue are the VAT (22 percent of total revenues), pension fund profits (22 percent), and taxes on enterprise profits (15 percent). (14) Despite his tough rhetoric, informed sources say that Moroz has already made a deal with Prime Minister Yevhen Marchuk to get the budget approved before the end of the year regardless of its perceived shortcomings. Recently Moroz and Marchuk have developed a kind of entente, which according to some inside accounts reflects a rivalry with president Leonid Kuchma. (15)
Moldova Bows to Europe on Death Penalty.
