KIEV, Feb. 2 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko suggested the government will not be submitting amendments to the 2009 budget until the end of June, Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn said Monday.

The delay comes in sharp contrast with the calls by President Viktor Yushchenko to immediately and drastically reduce budget spending in order to avert a looming “social catastrophe” in Ukraine.

Yushchenko, while pressing for the amendments, cited analysis by Finance Minister Viktor Pynzenyk that Ukraine has been experiencing a major slump in budget revenue due to the worst economic crisis in decades.

But Tymoshenko’s refusal to cut spending until the end of June shows that she stands by her recent forecast that the Ukrainian economy may be on the way to recovery by the end of June.

The developments underscore a major difference in the forecast of the Ukrainian economic future this year by teams of the president and the government, a clash that may soon explode.

“I have read the government’s statement that they will be doing nothing in the first half of the year,” Lytvyn said. “But I have to say that this contradicts the law on the budget that stipulates the government must submit the amendments before May 1.”

Lytvyn suggested that the amendments cutting budget spending may be submitted by the president and individual lawmakers, and said that Parliament may be able to take action without the government.

This suggests that Lytvyn de-facto shares Yushchenko’s calls for the drastic cut of budget spending, which may potentially split the Tymoshenko-led coalition.

“I assure you that all smart and well-calculated amendments will be supported by Parliament,” Lytvyn said.

A secret memo, recently leaked to the media and widely attributed to Finance Minister Viktor Pynzenyk, suggested that it was “too optimistic” to believe that the Ukrainian economy would contract by 5% on the year in 2009.

Tymoshenko apparently sticks by the government’s forecast that predicts the economy would grow 0.4% on the year in 2009.

Oleksandr Shlapak, a deputy chief of staff at the Yushcenko office, estimated the government may be facing a budget deficit at 70 billion hryvnias in 2009, and the amount that can be only covered by money printing.

The government earlier predicted budget revenue would increase by 3.1% to 238.9 billion hryvnias in 2009, while spending was set to increase 10.7% to 267.3 billion hryvnias, according the Finance Ministry.

The State Treasury raised 4.23 billion hryvnias in January to the general fund, which represents the biggest chunk of the budget, compared with 9.52 billion hryvnias originally forecast, exposing a major budget deficit.

But statistics released by Tymoshenko’s press service suggested that the government collected all the forecast budget revenue in January.

Analysts said the government may have asked Naftogaz Ukrayiny, the state oil and gas company and the country’s largest taxpayer, to pay its taxes early. The money may have later released back to Naftogaz as a payment to compensate the gas company for cheap natural gas it is required to supply to Ukrainian households. (tl/ez)