KIEV, Nov. 10 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Tuesday faced attacks from across the political spectrum for the government’s refusal to increase minimum wages and pensions, a sensitive issue that affects millions of voters.

Parliament last week approved amendments to the 2009 budget that mandate the increases, but Tymoshenko’s lawmakers, seeking to block the legislation, have appealed the bill to the Constitutional Court.

Tymoshenko, whose government is facing a financial crunch, said the bill is the main obstacle for the International Monetary Fund for disbursing $3.4 billion installment in November.

But other political figures that compete with Tymoshenko at the presidential election in January 2010 said the government’s attempts to block the bill are illegal and these efforts will most likely fail.

“She is going to lose as she lost before,” Yushchenko said while speaking at an election campaign trip to Kherson. “This position is illegal. The minimum subsistence level must be revised.”

Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych, who is ahead of Tymoshenko in opinion polls, said Tuesday his Regions Party will make sure the government acts to increase the wages and pensions.

“Once the amendments come into effect we will take the issue under control,” Yanukovych told Kirovohrad local television station through a television link from Kiev. “I think that officials insisting on not making the increases in line with the law must think well.”

The comments show that Yushchenko and Yanukovych have voiced similar positions concerning the law that increases minimum wages and pensions, suggesting both seek to capitalize on the issue that had played well with voters in the past.

It is a departure from earlier practices. Over the past several years it was Tymoshenko who would make sweeping social payment increase commitments among others that had resonated extremely well with voters just before the vote.

This time Tymoshenko criticized the law for allegedly costing too much for the budget in 2009 and in 2010. The government estimated the increases will cost extra 8.1 billion hryvnias in 2009 and extra 71.3 billion hryvnias in 2010.

But Yushchenko said the bill would only require 1.35 billion hryvnias in 2009 and 11.1 billion hryvnias in 2010.

He argued the increases would be politically fair since Tymoshenko had already increased wages to a number of government workers.

Yushchenko also submitted his amendments to the 2009 budget to Parliament that unlock the spending from the budget, and the amendments had been approved on November 6. The amendments now must be signed by the president to come into force.

Oleksandr Shlapak, Yushchenko’s top economic advisor and the first deputy chief of staff, said the president will sign the amendments soon.

Shlapak also said the IMF, after receiving arguments from Yushchenko, has softened its opposition to the bill.

“Now, the IMF, after receiving the president’s logic, has been much more restrained in criticizing the bill,” Shlapak said. (tl/ez)