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The central bank will be able to lift restrictions on investment abroad for companies and individuals only after draft laws on the international exchange of tax information (BEPS) have been passed by the Verkhovna Rada.
Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Oleh Churiy says the regulator, as part of further easing regulation in the forex market, plans to cancel the mandatory sale of foreign currency, restrictions on the repatriation of dividends and the issuance of loans in hryvnias to buy foreign currency.
"We've identified the main priority restrictions we plan to lift. These are the restrictions that affect the business climate, namely export-import operations and those related to direct investment from abroad," he said at a panel discussion on currency liberalization in Ukraine, organized by the Center for Economic Strategy.
"First, it is necessary to cancel the mandatory sale [of foreign currency] – this is one of our next steps – to completely abolish limits on the maximum amount of dividends repatriated abroad. We are also going to lift restrictions on issuing loans in UAH for the purchase of foreign currency," he added.
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The NBU Deputy Governor says the regulator will be able to lift restrictions on investment abroad for companies and individuals, as well as those related to the timing of payments for export-import transactions only after draft laws on the international exchange of tax information (Base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS) have been passed by the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament.
"Referring to other restrictions – the complete lifting of ban on investment abroad for companies and individuals, the removal of restrictions on timing of payments for export-import operations – they are quite tightly associated with the steps our parliament should take," he said.
"We perfectly understand that if, for example, today we remove these restrictions, there would be a significant outflow of capital abroad. Because if there are advantages in terms of taxation in one jurisdiction compared to another, of course, businesses will try to conduct transactions via jurisdictions where taxation is more attractive," he added.