PM: 2014 is a year of historical challenges, historical changes both in Ukraine and Europe

The year of 2014 is a year of historical challenges, historical changes in Ukraine, as well as historical developments and achievements in the entire Europe and the world. This was stressed by Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk at a press conference on December 30, 2014.

"The world history, as well as Ukrainian historians will write a lot about this year, and perhaps politicians in their memoirs will describe many of the events, those changes, the Revolution of Dignity and the war that was declared against Ukraine by the Russian Federation," Arseniy Yatsenyuk said.

According to the Prime Minister, historians are those who should give assessment of the outgoing year 2014, but one thing is clear: "the fact that we have survived this year is primarily merit of the Ukrainian people."

He has emphasized that now Ukraine faces objective challenges, especially economic ones related to Russian military aggression, "We lost 20% of the Ukrainian economy as a result of the intervention and the illegal annexation of Crimea. There is a fall in industrial production and GDP. Over 800 thousand of Ukrainians have been registered as internally displaced persons. They left their places of permanent residence, they lost their jobs, and the state is allocating billions of hryvnias for social allowances, pensions and salaries for these people. Thus, the risks are very high."

Arseniy Yatsenyuk has noted that the Russian Federation has never stuck and does not stick to any bilateral agreements, including in the economic sphere. We have seen a double fall in trade volume with Russia. "This has become a tendency, this is not the first time, and in fact, at the earliest possible date Russia will cease to be a Ukraine's major trading partner," the Prime Minister stated.

Also, our country faces the devaluation of the national currency, which is caused primarily by the crisis of confidence, "The trust has been undermined. People see Russian military aggression on TV. This fact objectively triggers that people go to banks, take off their deposits, because a frightened man wants to save at least something that he/she possesses."

According to him, people require tax and financial fairness that the burden which now lies on the shoulders of Ukrainians to be distributed evenly. "And those who have large incomes, those who represent Ukrainian big business, those who simply called oligarchs must pay their share, a significant share in order to help the country in such a difficult time," the Prime Minister noted.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk has stressed that to stabilize the situation, including in the sphere of public finance, the Government has undertaken a number of important steps in 2014. Firstly, it applies to amendments to tax laws, "which involved taxation of big business, which provided taxation of oligarchs; the increase of rate rents for oil, gas, gas condensate and ore; the increase of the excise rate; the introduction of passive income tax, etc.

"Overall, we have additionally collected about UAH12 billion from big business in 2014. Of course, I would like more, and there are some problems. I am ready to comment on the issues with taxation of large companies. But we are fighting to prevent big business from going in the shadow and to make them pay taxes," the Prime Minister noted and added that "the philosophy of tax reform and the reform package passed by the Parliament has been confessed by the Government in the preparation of all bills aimed at changing the Budget Code, Tax Code and, in fact, at that reflected in the Law of Ukraine on the State budget."