Members of the Verkhovna Rada are likely to fail the scandalous legislative initiative on the "parcel tax" that has caused outrage in society and sharp criticism from experts. This was stated by First Vice President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mykhailo Nepran, UNN reports.
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According to him, even its author, Danylo Hetmantsev, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, does not believe that MPs will support the legislative initiative on the "parcel tax," he said.
We had a meeting with Mr. Hetmantsev online. At the beginning of the year, we always meet and make plans for the next year. There were about 150 participants, almost all business associations in Ukraine, and the meeting lasted almost two hours. He is pessimistic that all the changes will be adopted
Earlier, experts called the idea of taxing parcels economically absurd and so difficult to administer that the state would spend more on collecting this tax than it would benefit the budget.
Mykhailo Nepran himself has recently cited data that, as a result of abuses in customs clearance, some tricksters evade taxes, which harms the state budget: "In 2022, the volume of untaxed transactions amounted to UAH 23 billion, in 2023 - UAH 40.1 billion, and in the first 9 months of 2024 - already UAH 44.6 billion," he said .
However, even the figures provided by the First Vice President of the CCI on budget losses over three years are almost twice as low as the UAH 170 billion that the budget loses in just one year due to corruption at customs, which is the key reason for smuggling and the flow of "gray imports.
At the same time, according to estimates by Mykhailo Nepran, imposing value-added tax on parcels would generate only UAH 17.7 billion in budget revenues per year.
Earlier, economic expert Oleh Pendzyn pointed outthat closing corruption loopholes at customs and eradicating corruption there can bring the budget much more than the extortion of penny taxes from small mail items. In addition, the authors of the "parcel tax" did not calculate its budgetary effect, especially given the enormous costs of modernizing customs, expanding its staff, and strengthening anti-corruption control.
Expert Olga Piskunova, who researches corruption prevention and worked as an anti-corruption commissioner in government agencies, statedthat the "parcel tax" would be a powerful driver of corruption at customs and would not bring any benefit to the budget.
Anatoliy Amelin, executive director and co-founder of the Ukrainian Institute for the Future think tank, called Hetmantsev "the main pest of Ukraine" and warned that his proposed "parcel tax" is beneficial to the aggressor country in order to stifle the Ukrainian drone industry so that the military cannot obtain spare parts and components for their repair.
User comment from website Espresso TV
The experts' opinion that the "parcel tax" initiated by Hetmantsev was pointless and harmful was supported by social media users:
"A banal example: I need electronics for the army. I buy it with my own money, from my army salary. No one compensates me. And now I have to pay customs duties. What a bunch of assholes. What can you order for €45? The old limit of €150 was unnecessary here. We don't buy 1-2 items. We need hundreds. I understand that we have to sit on our asses and answer the question, "Why doesn't something work for you?" by saying, "You've introduced taxes and duties, so buy it yourself.