Members of the Ukrainian Business Council and experts of the Embassy of Canada in Ukraine discussed the reboot of the SMS, State Tax Service and necessary accompanying measures

On July 25, 2024, a meeting was held between representatives of the Ukrainian Business Council and experts from the Embassy of Canada in Ukraine.

The event was attended by Liliana Zhylina, Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the Embassy of Canada, Yelyzaveta Zhuravska, Business Development Counselor at the Embassy of Canada, Mykhailo Nepran, First Vice President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Head of the Ukrainian Security Industry Federation and representative of the Ukrainian Cluster Alliance Anatoliy Dolynnyi, Director of the Directorate of the Association of Taxpayers of Ukraine for Customs Olga Nikolayenko, expert of the Economic Expert Platform Oleg Getman and Head of the URB Advocacy Department Yulia Chumak.

During the meeting, the participants discussed the need to reform the SMS following the example of the BES and the NACP. The election of the SMS director should be carried out by commissions with a decisive vote of international experts, and a procedure for re-certification of all personnel is needed, which would contain key safeguards, in particular, to prevent the courts from reinstating employees who have not passed such re-certification. It is important to ensure a public and transparent procedure for conducting an independent assessment of the performance of the Customs, to establish performance criteria for the renewed SCS and to monitor them on an ongoing basis.These approaches are in line with the requirements of the EFF program’s structural benchmarks and the updated Memorandum with the IMF.

The discussion touched upon the main areas of customs improvement and budget losses from the inefficient operation of the State Customs Service. Participants emphasized the importance of successful implementation of legislative initiatives to reform government agencies.

Analyzing the successfully implemented institutional reforms in the country, the parties agreed that in order to achieve a positive result, it is important to bring together various stakeholders – parliamentarians, representatives of government institutions, think tanks, business, and international partners.

Following the meeting, the participants agreed to further cooperate on all the issues discussed.