Local budget expenditures through the prism of the war in Ukraine

Abstract

The war in Ukraine significantly affected the financial and economic situation of communities, which affected the execution of local budgets. Therefore, the problems of improving the tools for the implementation of budget policy at the local level are being updated. The purpose of the article is to conduct a problem-oriented analysis of the current practice of executing local budgets and financing expenditures in the conditions of Russia's armed aggression in Ukraine. A problem-oriented analysis of the implementation of the local budget of Ukraine in the conditions of Russia's military aggression in Ukraine is carried out. Legislative initiatives related to the implementation of the budget process at the local level are analyzed. The surplus of consolidated local budgets for five months of 2022 is revealed. On the basis of the analysis, the following factors were singled out among the important ones for the implementation of planned indicators at the base level: consumer inflation, the growth of personal income tax (including due to the increase in payments to military personnel), the expansion of the system of simplified taxation, the cancellation of the reverse subsidy. Attention is focused on the significant reduction of local budget expenditures, especially development expenditures and the consequences for the development of communities. The article outlines the following problematic issues of the functioning of local self-government today: filling of local budgets, spending, and social support for the needs of internally displaced persons and their integration into new communities. The opinion about the expediency of increasing the expenditures in war conditions and providing benefits is substantiated taking into account the type of territory (depending on the course of hostilities). The need to improve the mechanisms of budgetary equalization of territories is emphasized.