Members of the Ukrainian Business Council took part in the conference “Institutional changes and restoration of human capital – the path to the Restoration of Ukraine”, which was held in Kyiv with the participation of the head of the “Servant of the People” party Olena Shulyak, the head of the Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Danylo Hetmantsev , Head of the Committee on Social Policy Halyna Tretyakova, Business Ombudsman of Ukraine Roman Vashchuk, leading business associations and analytical centers.
Representatives of business associations expressed their proposals: Grigol Katamadze — President of the Association of Taxpayers of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of URB; Mykhailo Nepran — the first Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine; Vasyl Voskoboynyk — head of the All-Ukrainian Association of International Employment Companies; Anatoliy Dolynyny — head of the Ukrainian Federation of the Security Industry, member of the Supervisory Board of URB; Borys Emeldesh — President of the All-Ukrainian Professional Association of Entrepreneurs and other members of the URB.
The meeting was moderated by Oleg Getman, coordinator of expert groups of the Economic Expert Platform.
Among the issues raised by the participants in the discussion are institutional anti-corruption changes that are extremely important for the country. And for this, first of all, a reboot of the Bureau of Economic Security, the State Customs Service, and the State Tax Service is required.
Commenting on the proposal to reform these bodies on the model of anti-corruption bodies, where the majority of the supervisory board is made up of representatives of foreign partners, the authorities noted that at this time international partners have not yet agreed to participate in tender commissions. Negotiations are ongoing, results should be available in the near future.
“International partners do not want to descend to this level of “micro-management”, as they believe, but we are convinced that the Bureau of Economic Security will monitor the use of reconstruction funds provided by Europeans and Americans, so it is the most important body of all,” head of the parliamentary committee Danylo Hetmantsev explained.
“Business is waiting for the restart of not only these three bodies, but also the restart of the social insurance system,” said the head of the parliamentary committee, Galina Tretyakova. – Because when the business says that the EUV should be reduced, it means that it is necessary to reduce those obligations that exist today and are paid at the expense of the social insurance system. On the other hand, it is necessary to reduce the costs of maintaining the social insurance apparatus. The key to reducing the ESS lies in what obligations there are in payments to people and how efficiently the state insurance system works. If we don’t look at what we spend money on, we won’t have compensators for the reduction of EUV”.
Representatives of business associations expressed concern about attempts to transfer the functions of administration of the single social contribution to the Pension Fund of Ukraine (draft laws No. 9569 and No. 9570). “These projects cause concern for Ukrainian business. Business does not need another controlling body now, the Tax Service has to deal with the administration of the Tax Service,” said Borys Emeldesh, president of the All-Ukrainian Professional Association of Entrepreneurs.
Government representatives commented on the following initiatives: this is a tactical decision to improve administration, it will not interfere with the strategic direction of unification of the EUS and the Personal Income Tax Department and reduction of the total burden on the wage fund to 25%.
The participants of the meeting also raised the issue of returning the presumption of innocence to Ukrainian taxpayers, the application of European experience. The parties agreed to hold this discussion separately, within the framework of EU integration.
The participants of the conference identified areas such as restoring the human capital of Ukraine, stimulating salary growth by reducing salary taxes, introducing investment and business visas, and simplified household taxation as important. According to the results of the discussion, it was agreed to implement these directions on the basis of the parliamentary committee on social policy.
The President of the Association of Taxpayers of Ukraine, Grigol Katamadze, called for the creation of appropriate conditions for Ukraine to become more attractive both for those who stayed and for those who left: “One of the measures is to reduce the burden on the wage fund. Despite the military conditions, we have to do it, we need to adopt the appropriate laws as soon as possible, but with the condition that they will work after the Victory. For people, this will be a signal that they can return, because our conditions will be better.”
It was also about draft laws important for simplifying business: large-scale deregulation (No. 8058), liberalization of market supervision (No. 5473d), legal succession of permit documents (No. 6013), simplification of the CIC (No. 8137), liberalization of procedures for changing the purpose of land (No. 9627) , creation of a transparent mechanism for business regulation in temporary structures and identification of parking lot operators, effective work of EKA (№9015)
Olena Shulyak, head of the Servant of the People party, noted that projects No. 5473d, No. 9015, No. 8137 have been developed by the Committees of the VRU and are ready for voting, and should be supported by the Parliament as a whole during the fall. The project on a transparent mechanism for regulating business in temporary structures is currently being developed and will be registered in the Parliament within a few weeks.
People’s deputies are also ready to reform the system of social dialogue, the current situation must be changed, the deputies emphasized.
According to the results of the discussion, the participants reached an agreement on all the discussed issues and agreed on joint work on the specified projects.
