But what most likely will happen is Ukraine will witness a spike in reported new electric car purchases if the tax break becomes law. Car importers will start abusing the subsidy to evade the 10 percent import tax by bribing customs officials to classify their vehicles as electric. Taxpayers will lose out on revenue. We hazard to guess that most of the imports will be merely a fraudulent scheme to evade taxes. That means less money for roads and the pension fund, to which new car sales are tied as well. It also means the energy conservation, key to national security, will likely not materialize.

Targeted tax breaks will not work in a nation with weak and corrupt institutions, especially a customs service that competes to be the most corrupt of the corrupt. Ukraine’s tax system should be fair and with few, if any, special favors. For every tax break that parliament grants, there are schemers waiting in the wings ready and willing to bribe and commit fraud to take advantage of it as well as customs officials ready to accept the money and commit fraud.

Ukraine needs to get the fundamentals right before doling on tax breaks: The nation needs a broad-based, progressive and easily enforceable tax code that taxes everyone on the basis of ability to pay and is fiscally sound.