Research the state of local budgets execution of Ukraine during wartime

Abstract

The article examines the state of local budgets execution of Ukraine in wartime conditions, and finds out the main trends and identifies problematic points in local budgets implementation. The role of local budgets in overcoming challenges in wartime conditions through the financial basis for providing services at the local level, helping internally displaced persons, supporting relocated businesses, arranging shelters, and ensuring the fulfillment of socio-economic tasks at the local level have been characterized. The financial resources of local self-government have been described where the dominant place is occupied by local budget revenues. It was found that there were changes in the budget legislation in the conditions of martial law, which relate to the methods and ways of managing public finances, including local budgets through the simplification of the budget process procedure at the local level and the expansion of both the government and local authority’s powers in terms of management and use of budget funds. The dynamics and structure of local budget's revenues of Ukraine, as well as the implementation percentage of revenue's planned indicators of local budgets for the period 2020– 2022 and for January-August 2023 have been analyzed. The dynamics of local budget’s expenditures of Ukraine and the implementation percentage of expenditures planned indicators for 2020–2022 and for January-August 2023 have been studied. A comparison has been made of the total revenue and total expenditure of local budgets of Ukraine in 2020–2022, as well as for January-August 2023. The state of local budgets execution of Ukraine by general and special funds, as well as in general in 2021–2022 and for January-August 2023 has been studied. It was found out that, despite the war, the local budgets of Ukraine had an excess of revenues over expenditures, i.e., a budget surplus. Budget surplus was observed due to the influence of a number of factors, among which the growth of income from personal income tax and import VAT is significant. Problematic points in the execution of revenues and expenditures of local budgets of Ukraine during the wartime period have been indicated, including the occurrence of imbalances in local budgets and the need for further improvement of the national budget policy.