You're reading: Azarov: Ukrainian government to present draft Tax Code on Sept. 3

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has finished preparing the draft Tax Code, which was updated during public discussions, and will present it to the media on Friday, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday.

According to him, a total of 5,000 amendments were considered during work on the draft code.

"I would like to outline some details: the profit tax rate will decrease to 19% (it is 25% at the moment). Norms for accelerated amortization will give tax holidays to companies that invest in innovations and technical modernization," Azarov said.

"A zero profit tax rate will be envisaged for five years for branches favored by the state, for example, light industry and small business. Automatic value added tax reimbursement will be introduced, this tax rate will be reduced by about 17% until 2014 (it is now 20%)," the head of the government added.

In addition, the prime minister said the draft Tax Code envisages the cancellation of market and transport charges, advertising taxes and an increase of income from a number of payments to local budgets.