On October 2, the Verkhovna Rada approved a bill to improve the licensing procedure for business activity in Ukraine. The bill is aimed to simplify licensing procedures to deregulate economic activity.

“The approved bill is intended to bring order to the licensing system and to streamline special and general law. The document significantly simplifies the licensing procedures and makes them more comprehensible and easier for entrepreneurs”, commented Dmytro Romanovych, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine.

Hence, the bill introduces a new sanction for violation of licensing conditions - suspension of the license in full or in part. This type of sanction is determined to be more effective than revocation of the license, as it provides the licensee with an opportunity to correct the detected violations of the licensing conditions and then quickly renew the existing license to prolong the activities.

In addition, the bill stipulates that the revocation of the license can only be carried out in case of serious violations or their recurrence. Moreover, there are introduced new conditions for revocation of the license – when declared having limited or no legal capacity, recognizing as missing, announcement lisence holder dead; when having an act of the failure by the licence holder to eliminate violations, that were the basis for its termination, within the term of the license termination. Meanwhile, there will be excluded grounds for revocation of the license in case of non-payment by the license holder for the issue of the license.

Moreover, the document proposes to unify the amount of penalties for violation of licensing legislation and to improve the procedures for appealing the actions of licensing bodies to the Expert Board of Appeal.

Among the mandatory conditions for granting a business license stipulated for by the bill is barrier-free access for limited mobility population groups.