No tax hike in August: draft laws withdrawn from the agenda of the next plenary week

15 August 2024 13:33

MP and co-chair of the European Solidarity faction in the Verkhovna Rada Iryna Gerashchenko said that the issue of tax increases, which was planned to be considered in August, has been removed from the agenda of the next plenary week, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports

“Another piece of good news is that there will be no tax hike in August. These bills have been removed from the agenda of the next plenary week,” she wrote on Telegram.

However, Gerashchenko did not specify whether this issue would be raised again in the near future or whether it was postponed indefinitely.

She noted that “the parliament should wake up from its sleepwalking, get back to work and make important decisions for the country.”

“At the next plenary week, the EU will demand a reboot of the provisional investigatory commission on fortifications, the creation of a working group on OKHMADIT, around the reconstruction of which shameful games and scandals continue, and budget sequestration, where all funds from TV series and marathons should finally be transferred to the Armed Forces. The units lack drones and electronic warfare devices, and all funds should be allocated for this today,” said the MP.

Earlier, the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, said that the Rada had no votes for the Cabinet’s tax increase plan.

The MP compared the postponement of the draft law to how hard and long it took the government to pass another unpopular law on mobilisation.

“I think they will only delay the first reading [of Bill 11416] until early September. And then, I’m sure, we will urgently delay the second reading, because otherwise there will be no money. As a result, we will have three months to collect the amount instead of four. And taxes will have to be raised more and more radically,” Zheleznyak wrote.

The head of the Finance Committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, warned earlier that without changes to the budget, the situation with the payment of money to the military could deteriorate by the end of September.

As a reminder, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is planning tax changes. According to a published document, the government plans to raise the military tax, which currently stands at 1.5%, to 5%.

In a commentary to Kommersant Ukrainian , investment banker Sergey Fursa said that such a step was forced, as military operations continue in the country. In his opinion, a better solution would probably be to raise VAT or excise taxes, but the most important thing is to fill the budget.