KIEV, July 17 – The general fund of the national budget could see 30% less revenue than was expected in 2009, Oleksandr Shlapak, first deputy head of the presidential secretariat, said.

"It's likely that we will come to the end of this year with non-fulfillment of the budget's general fund close to UAH 30 billion. Add the target budget deficit of UAH 31 billion to this... The situation in the budget sphere is only worsening," he said at a briefing on Thursday.

Shlapak said that one of the reasons for the fall in budget revenues is the considerable worsening of companies' financial state: the number of unprofitable companies is growing, and the shadow market is expanding.