UNIAN
Tax reform in Ukraine, which involves the introduction of a new fiscal system starting from January 1, 2016, will be built based on the Polish model of decentralization, the Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Aivaras Abromavicius reported at the global forum of the Atlantic Council held in Wroclaw (Poland) on June 11-13.
"We held a meeting in the Presidential Administration with individual ministers, mayors of large cities and governors, where we discussed decentralization issue. Many of the proposals were related to following the Polish model of decentralization," he said.
The minister also said that the targeted changes that had been previously made to the Tax Code were not a tax reform, and were aimed only at optimizing individual elements of the fiscal system.
"The tax reform was not actually [major] tax reform, and only included some changes. The reduction in the number of taxes from 22 to 11 in December did not reduce the pressure on business, but increased the amount of income tax revenues for the regions, up by UAH 10 billion in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period last year," the minister said.
According to Abromavicius, the government firmly adheres to the previously declared intentions and the timing of launch of a new fiscal system.
"Since December, we have been discussing tax reform, it is the responsibility of the Minister of Finance. In October, we will vote in parliament, and in January [2016] we will have a new tax system, which I hope will help reduce the share of the shadow economy, attract investment and create more jobs," Abromavicius said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the newly appointed head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine Roman Nasirov expects that the new tax reform will be completed by October 2015, so that the budget for the next year will be prepared on the basis of a new tax system.
At the end of December last year the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Law of Ukraine "On amendments to the budget code," which envisaged fiscal decentralization.
Through the adoption of the law, local authorities will have all the mechanisms to achieve financial independence, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk has said.
At the same time, Finance Minister Natalia Jaresko noted that the introduction of fiscal decentralization mechanisms and tax base expansion, as well as transferring administration of some taxes to a local level would enable local authorities to raise up to UAH 25 billion in additional tax revenues.