KIEV, Sept. 26 – Ukraine’s 2014 budget is apparently facing new delays as the Finance Ministry has yet to show its draft to the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych, a senior official said Thursday.

Iryna Akimova, Yanukovych’s top economic advisor, said she had not yet seen the draft 2014 budget and had no idea when it would be completed.

“I don’t know,” Akimova said. “Ask Finance Minister [Yuriy] Kolobov.”

Law requires the government to submit the budget draft to Parliament before September 15, giving enough time to lawmakers to work on amendments.

This year, however, the draft was submitted to Parliament on Saturday, September 14, but was quickly returned back to the government on Monday, September 16.

Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Rybak, who returned the draft, explained that “many issues” had to be fixed. No other lawmaker had been able to see the draft, triggering speculation the government is facing major problems.

The delays with the 2014 budget draft come as the government has been struggling with collecting enough budget revenue this year, potentially posing a political challenge to the ruling Regions Party.

“The situation is really bad,” a senior official at the Yanukovych administration, said. “Arrears are growing and soon there may be political fallout for the party.”

The Regions Party will compete against opposition groups for five parliamentary seats later this year at special elections.

Losing the seats to opposition candidates, who are considered to be favorites, will pose new challenges to the Regions Party in Parliament.

Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of the largest opposition Batkivshchyna group, said there were speculations the government is facing major financial difficulties this year and next.

He estimated the government probably runs short of 45 billion hryvnias to meet the planned spending targets.

The Finance Ministry expects Ukraine’s economy to grow 3% on the year in 2014, while the budget deficit is planned to be kept at 2.7% of the GDP. Consumer inflation will probably be at 8.3% in 2014, according to the ministry.

But the forecast may prove to be wrong.

The government predicted the economy to expand 3.4% on the year in 2013, but the economy was on course of having a zero growth this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Akimov said the government may downgrade the macroeconomic forecast numbers for 2014 after obtaining growth figures in the first nine months of 2013. These figures will be available in early October.

"When data for the first nine months is known, then the indicators are to be revised,” she said earlier this week. (tl/ez)