Deregulation: Government finalizes transition to voluntary use of seals by businesses

The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a draft law that abolishes the mandatory use of seals in some areas. The decision, developed by the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture the deregulation reform, finalizes the transition to the voluntary use of seals, which began in 2014.

"We are protecting the legitimate interests of businesses and doing everything to make the state a partner and reliable support for them. Today, we have proposed to remove outdated requirements for the mandatory use of seals in two more laws. If the Parliament supports this decision, entrepreneurs will no longer be obliged to use seals - only if they wish to do so. This next stage of deregulation will complete the reform that has been underway for more than 10 years. No unnecessary costs and no double interpretation - everything should be simple and convenient for business," said Oleksii Sobolev, Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine.

The Government's decision proposes to amend the current laws “On Employers' Organizations, Their Associations, Rights and Guarantees of Their Activities” and “On Capital Markets and Organized Commodity Markets”. If the draft law is approved by the Parliament, the amendments will terminate the obligation to use seals:

• for employers' organizations - in the minutes of the meeting or conference at which the association of employers' organizations was established;
• for banks - in bank savings certificates.

Background information

The transition to voluntary use of seals began in 2014 with the adoption of the Law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Simplifying the Procedure for Starting a Business”. Since then, with few exceptions, the regulatory framework has been cleared of provisions on the mandatory use of seals and stamps.

As part of the deregulation reform, the Interagency Working Group on Accelerated Review of State Regulatory Instruments for Entrepreneurial Activity reviewed more than 1,300 regulatory instruments for business. Of these, 584 were recommended for simplification and 456 for abolition. So far, 352 state regulatory instruments have been canceled.