During a working trip to the Khmelnytskyi region, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi took part in a meeting of the Chamber of Local Authorities of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the Head of State.
He noted that the Congress is an important platform for the interaction of central authorities and local communities, which should help in solving the urgent problems of the regions.
The President noted that the first stage of the reform of the basic level of local self-government has been completed in Ukraine.
“Ahead is large-scale work at the regional and subregional levels. Ahead is a difficult process of changes to the Constitution of Ukraine regarding the administrative-territorial system, changes to the Ukrainian legislation on local self-government, as well as to the Budget Code of Ukraine,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
He emphasized that he closely monitors the processes of transfer of communal property objects to communities. The President emphasized the importance of financial independence of local budgets and the capacity of territorial communities.
In this context, the Head of State informed about the intention to jointly initiate draft laws with the government and parliament on optimizing the revenue part of local budgets, in particular on improving the land tax, real estate tax, personal income tax, single and transport taxes.
“We are not talking about increasing these taxes, but about increasing the share that remains on the ground,” Volodymyr Zelenskyi said.
In addition, according to him, it is important to improve the distribution mechanism
interbudgetary transfers based on the formulas established in the Budget Code.
For his part, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak emphasized that the Congress of local and regional authorities is a powerful tool for solving key problems of local self-government, because it unites representatives of all levels of the vertical of executive, legislative and local self-government.
According to him, the problem of providing local budgets with financial resources is acute today, therefore it is necessary to determine the formula for filling the district coffers and improve the mechanism of distribution of budgetary transfers from the state budget.
“It is planned to increase the standards for the inclusion of personal income tax in the budgets of rural, settlement, and urban territorial communities. And also the expansion of powers of bodies
of local self-government regarding the administration and control over the payment of local taxes and fees,” Andriy Yermak said.
The head of the President’s Office said that next week the Head of State will also take part in the session of the Chamber of Regions of the Congress, and the Presidium of the Congress will work as an active body every month.
The deputy head of the Office of the President, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, who presided over the meeting of the Chamber of Local Authorities of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, added that from now on, a permanent office of the Congress will work at the Office of the Head of State, where every community leader can apply.
“You can apply both by phone and in person when you come to Kyiv. This is an office where you can come at any time, ask questions, submit documents, and if necessary, we will connect the Cabinet of Ministers, the Verkhovna Rada, etc.,” he said.
Oleksiy Chernyshov, Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, noted that the government has prepared several draft laws that provide for an increase in the volume of the State Fund for Regional Development.
Work is also underway on the adoption of draft laws that provide conditions for the development of industrial parks and the attraction of private investments. According to Oleksiy Chernyshov, the Regional Development Fund will finance the creation of four industrial parks this year, which will be able to create new jobs and increase revenues for local budgets.
One of the topics that received considerable attention during the meeting concerned the preparation of the regions for the heating season. Volodymyr Zelenskyi spoke on
support for the proposal to write off the debts of TKE enterprises to Naftogaz of Ukraine. At the same time, the Head of State noted that, in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, gas prices should be market-based.
“However, the state, as a shareholder, appealed to NAK, and “Naftogaz” will introduce energy packages, which in terms of price would be the best, if not the best, in all of Europe,” the President added.
The participants of the meeting also touched on the issue of transferring vocational and technical schools into communal ownership. The head of state emphasized the need to provide for a more flexible system of the list of VET specialties taking into account the needs of the labor market and to assist local communities in issuing educational licenses for the required number of VET students.
Also, the participants of the event supported the main conceptual provisions of the reform of the architectural and construction control system, which are provided for by the relevant draft law under consideration in the Verkhovna Rada.
In addition, a number of organizational issues were considered. Thus, the participants of the meeting elected Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovoy as the chairman of the Chamber of Local Authorities of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. The mayor of Zhytomyr, Serhii Sukhomlyn, and the mayor of Dnipro, Boris Filatov, were elected as his deputies.
Andriy Sadovy proposed to introduce the rotation principle and the trial period, which was set for him for six months.
The participants of the meeting also included Oleksandr Slobozhan, executive director of the Association of Cities of Ukraine, in the Presidium of the Congress, approved the composition of the counting commission and the secretariat of the Chamber meeting, and approved the Chamber’s Rules of Procedure.
