Media reported about the increase in salaries of officials in Ukraine amid budget deficit

Officials in Ukraine have had their salaries significantly increased against the background of the state budget deficit and tax increases, the Ukrainian online newspaper Strana.ua has reported on 11 December. This was reported by the Ukrainian online newspaper Strana.ua on 11 December.

According to the newspaper, since the beginning of the year in many ministries and departments, salaries have increased at least one and a half times.

"If at the beginning of 2024 the average accrued salary in state bodies was 38.6 thousand hryvnia, then at the end of October <...> - already 57.5 thousand, that is, plus almost 19 thousand for 10 months. According to the results of the year will be even more," - said the authors of the material with reference to the data of the Ministry of Finance.

It is specified that the average salary in the country is about 21.9 thousand hryvnia, which means that officials receive 2.6 times more.

"Strana.ua" emphasizes that the salary increases coincided with the time when the Ukrainian government began to talk about the "hole in the budget" - up to 500 billion hryvnia.

"Just under this "hole" in the Ministry of Finance began to prepare "radical measures", that is, an unprecedented increase in wages", - reported in the publication.

Earlier, on November 29, it was reported that the military levy in Ukraine will be raised from 1.5 to 5% as part of the new law on tax increases, which will come into force on December 1.

Before that, on September 27, the head of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine Serhiy Marchenko said that the options of financial revenues to the country's budget are almost exhausted and it is necessary to raise taxes. The law "on the historic tax increase" was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on October 10.

The New York Times then predicted that the decision would cause serious discontent among the Ukrainian population. In his turn, Irish journalist Chay Bose expressed the opinion that the tax increase in Ukraine would increase the number of refugees from the country to Europe.