Raising taxes on business will lead to a decline in Ukraine’s defense capability

This was stated by Yaroslav Zhelezniak, first deputy chair of the Verkhovna Rada committee on finance, taxation and customs policy, at the congress “Public finance system reform – the path to Ukraine's recovery,” organized with the support of CIPE.

“We fully finance our army solely through taxes and customs duties. This is effectively the only source of funding for soldiers in the trench, for buying weapons, buying uniforms, equipment and so on. If we have fewer taxes and fees for our army, it means the army will receive less money. That is why it is important to support business,” said Yaroslav Zhelezniak, reports FinClub.

Without taxes there will be negative consequences. “If the situation for business deteriorates, it will mean not only economic deterioration but also a security one,” he said.

Therefore, additional funds must be sought. “We need to find new sources of revenue for the state budget. Instead of raising taxes and creating a new headache for business, we need to improve the administration of the taxes that already exist,” said Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk, deputy chair of the Verkhovna Rada committee on finance, tax and customs policy.

Yaroslav Zhelezniak asserts that we have done very little for business. According to him, the first thing we must definitely do this year is reboot customs, the BEB and the tax service.

“Not the nonsense that the government submitted and tried to push through parliament, but a proper reboot,” he said.