Finance Minister: Impossible to Confiscate Frozen Yanukovych Funds This Year

There is no real possibility to confiscate the frozen funds of the Yanukovych regime and put them into the state budget his year, Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk said during a forum in Kyiv, UNIAN reports.

"I would want this [confiscation] to happen this year, but this timeframe does not look realistic," he said. The Minister noted this situation has a negative impact on the budget process in Ukraine. "We already had ₴7.7 billion in special confiscations planned in the budget this year. We have to change this approach to budgeting when we plan to receive the funds and later do not receive them. We need to confiscate these funds in a legal way as soon as possible, this money has to work for the people."

On June 16, the Verkhovna Rada refused to vote on bill #4811 on special confiscation of assets received by corrupt means. The authors of the bill said it would allow to confiscate the arrested funds belonging to the officials of the Yanukovych regime and channel them for defense needs. The expected amount of funds is $1.5 billion.

On July 5, Petro Poroshenko Bloc MP Ivan Vinnyk said that the coalition MPs are withdrawing the special confiscations bill and plan to table a new bill on the issue.

Source: Ekonomichna Pravda