The retaining of tax exemptions for agriculture should be a key negotiating position of Ukraine in the dialogue with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to the Ukrainian Agrarian Association (UAA).
“The volume of tax support for Ukrainian farmers is about Hr 19
billion , but the government has still many
opportunities to reduce government spending, privatization of
inefficient enterprises and so on,” association head Volodymyr Makar
told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, the government and the parliament should understand
that giving up benefits in practice will lead to even greater losses to
the national budget, as it will mean the termination of operations of
about 50% of agricultural enterprises in Ukraine.
“The list of the IMF recommendations has never been tough. The fund
shows the borrowing country possibilities for saving: tax benefits to
farmers is one such opportunity. Ukraine, in turn, should decide on
which IMF recommendations it will agree to follow,” he said.
The association believes that we can discuss the terms of
agricultural companies’ transferring to the common system of taxation or
the percentage of value added tax (VAT), which farmers can leave to
themselves, but Ukrainian agriculture cannot be left without any
support.
As reported, the IMF intends by the end of September to prepare proposals to reform VAT benefits for farmers.
