Ukraine sees about US$6 bln in loss annually due to shadow employment – expert

REUTERS Deputy head of the Center for Economic Strategy, Maria Repko, says Ukraine&#39;s annual budgetary losses from shadow employment are estimated at about US$6 billion. "The national budget is losing $6 billion each year because of shadow employment. We see that 2.6 million people out of 16 million officially employed work either as individuals (entrepreneurs), although they are employed, or receive their salaries in &#39;envelopes.&#39; Employees who receive such salaries account for about 30%, that is, every third employee. Approximately 23% of the economically active population are still working illegally, that is, they officially receive no remuneration for their work," she said at a press conference on December 4. Read alsoUkraine loses about US$70 bln in five years over shadow schemes – expert According to the expert, it&#39;s both the country&#39;s budgets and the Pension Fund who suffer from shadow employment. The previous -- due to the low receipts of individual income taxes, and the latter -- through the losses in single social contribution. As UNIAN reported earlier, every third employee, or about 5 million people, is working illegally in Ukraine, according to the State Labor Service. Ukrainian Social Policy Minister Andriy Reva says the rate of shadow employment in Ukraine in 2017 decreased by 8%, to 3.7 million people from an earlier 4 million non-accounted workers.

Ukraine sees about US$6 bln in loss annually due to shadow employment – expert

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