PM says we will stick to transparent VAT administration system

"We have resolved to improve the VAT administration procedure as much as possible. We will stick to the clear and transparent system of the value added tax administration," Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk underlined at a board meeting of the Finance Ministry on Monday, 27 July.

The Prime Minister appealed to Head of the State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov after the signing by the President of Ukraine the Law on the VAT administration to report on the implementation of this law on the monthly results: "I want to compare the volume of value added tax received in this month in 2014 with the amount we are to get after the introduction of a new system of the VAT administration."

Arseniy Yatsenyuk has reminded that there were some attempts in the Parliament to break the scheme of the special VAT administration procedure":"They failed as the abolition of special procedures of the VAT administration is profitable only to those engaged in shady business, to those who are laundering money, using tax pits and pumping out billions of hryvnias from the budget."

"It always was a sinecure of billions of hryvnias for the Tax Office, Security Service, Prosecutor’s Office, tax police and some banks protected by the law enforcement system. That's actually five elements which washed out billions of hryvnias from the budget," he stressed.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk emphasized the need for a transparent system of the VAT refund. Clear criteria of automatic compensation, he noted, are set out in the law. But in another part, the so-called "VAT scheme", there is embezzlement of public funds, "An illegal company just fills in a piece of paper, such a VAT tax declaration, puts it into the system. And then it turns out that the country's budget owed a tax pit a million or billion. This is not just embezzlement of funds, this is a classic scheme of a state budget’s scam."

He highlighted that SFS Head Roman Nasirov and his first Deputy Serhii Bilan managed to stop the illegal VAT refund worth UAH17 billion.

The Prime Minister also reminded that despite the reluctance of some MPs in the Parliament the law on the electronic VAT administration system was voted, "No single step back in this matter."

According to him, the same concerns excise taxes: "Those who pay taxes publicly and transparently will be fine with the electronic administration of excise duties. But those who are engaged in smuggling, laundering and counterfeiting of excisable goods – they need no transparent system."