Ukrainian Parliament approves amendments to Budget Code to launch minerals deal with US
The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) has supported, as a basis, the draft law amending the Budget Code to implement the agreement on minerals deals between Ukraine and the United States.
Source: Yaroslav Zhelezniak, First Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy
Details: A total of 286 MPs voted in favour of the draft law No. 13256 in the first reading.
Amendments to the Budget Code are needed to fill the US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, established under a bilateral agreement.
Ukraine's contribution to this fund will be formed from 50% of the revenues received after the agreement enters into force from:
royalties for the extraction of oil, gas, gas condensate and other minerals from new licences;
issuing new special permits for mineral use;
selling the state share of production under new production sharing agreements.
These funds will be credited to a special fund of the state budget, from where, at the decision of the main spending unit (likely the Ministry of Economy), they will be transferred to the Reconstruction Fund.
Roksolana Pidlasa, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Budget Committee, said that if the agreement were to be in effect from 2019, Ukraine's contribution to the fund could amount to more than UAH 3 billion (approx. US$72.38 million) over five years.
Background:
On 1 May, Ukraine's Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signed the minerals deal.
"Together with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, I have signed the agreement on the establishment of the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund," Svyrydenko wrote.
The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine had published the text of a memorandum with the United States on the completion of a formal agreement on economic partnership and a Reconstruction Investment Fund. The text was published on the website of the Ministry of Economy.
It states that the agreement will provide for the creation of an investment fund for Ukraine's reconstruction.
On 8 May, the Verkhovna Rada voted to ratify the agreement on establishing a joint investment fund between Ukraine and the United States. All 338 MPs voted in favour, with none of them abstaining or voting against ratification.
On 12 May, Zelenskyy signed the ratification of the mineral agreement with the United States.
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