During 2020, the Government has been purposefully and systematically working on resolving the issue of payment of arrears of wages to miners.

Last week, the Government decided to distribute funds, which would allow allocating UAH 1.4 billion to pay salaries to employees of state-owned coal companies. Accordingly, wage arrears to employees of state-owned coal mines will be repaid in the near future.

This became possible due to the amendments to the State Budget for 2020, which were adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on November 17 and entered into force on November 28. Already at its regular meeting, the Government approved the procedure for the transfer to the State Budget of revenues from PJSC Ukrnafta, which will be used to finance the repayment of debts to miners.

It should be recalled that in the State Budget 2020 (as of November 14, 2019), expenditures under the Coal Industry Restructuring Program amounted to UAH 1.96 billion, which were distributed over 12 months in equal parts of UAH 163.56 million per month. However, these funds were insufficient to repay wage arrears to employees of state-owned coal companies. Therefore, in March, in order to timely pay current wages and repay debts, budget allocations for August-September in the amount of UAH 327.1 million and for October-December in the amount of UAH 490.7 million were transferred to March 2020.

In addition, in April, changes to the State Budget 2020 (dated 13.04.2020) expenditures under the Coal Industry Restructuring Program were increased by UAH 1.6 billion to UAH 3.56 billion, thereby allowing to ensure debt repayment and payment of current wages in the spring -summer in 2020.

In November, changes to the State Budget 2020 (dated 17.11.2020) expenditures under the Coal Industry Restructuring Program were again increased by 1.4 billion UAH. These funds will be used to repay the balance of arrears of wages to employees of state-owned coal companies.

It should be noted that in the first 11 months of 2020, UAH 5.3 billion was allocated by state coal mining enterprises to pay salaries and repay wage arrears, including UAH 3.6 billion from the state budget.