There are signs that Danylo Hetmantsev, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, is managing the State Tax Service in a manual mode. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to UNN by Anatoliy Amelin, a member of the Board of the Society at The Aspen Institute Kyiv, Director of Economic Programs at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future.
"I can't say this (that Hetmantsev controls the tax office manually - ed.) because I haven't held a candle to it, but when Hetmantsev, as the chairman of the committee, as an official, writes his contact phone number on his page - saying that if you have any problems, please contact me - this is a direct sign of manual control of the tax office," Amelin said.
He added that he has worked not only in Ukraine but also in Asia, in Hong Kong, Latvia, and the UAE, and has never had any problems with the tax authorities. "Moreover, officials have never given me their private phones. They say we have a system, it's transparent," Amelin said.
According to him, the US approach to civil servants is as follows: they must use official phones listed in a register that cannot be accessed to prevent the possibility of any personal preferences.
"Therefore, this approach is an indirect sign that he (Hetmantsev - ed.) is managing the tax office in a manual mode," Amelin said.
At the same time, he added that the current tax policy in Ukraine is killing the economy, and because of it, the Ukrainian state is losing in competition with other countries. This, according to the expert, is evidenced by the ratings of ease of paying taxes and ratings of economic freedom, where the Ukrainian tax system creates more obstacles for business than assistance for its development.
"What is being done today in terms of tax policy in the country as a whole is killing the economy, it does not give an incentive for its growth and it gives our competitors - other countries - more opportunities to compete, we are losing the competition," Amelin said.
The expert added that there is currently a conflict in the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy between Hetmantsev and his associates and those committee members who do not support such a tax policy in Ukraine. "He (Hetmantsev - ed.) has several henchmen in the committee. There are also conflicts in the committee, specifically on the issue of tax policy application," Amelin said.
"Moreover, the entire tax system that operates in Ukraine is designed to optimize taxes. Because the state does not receive enough, but they receive corruption rents when they turn a blind eye to these processes. And this is a big system, where Hetmantsev is one of the cogs. And this system can be rebuilt, but we need to understand how much taxes the economy really needs," the expert added.
Recall
Since May 2022, Yevhen Sokur has been acting deputy head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine. Business representatives and experts believe that he is the man of MP Danylo Hetmantsev, head of the Verkhovna Rada's Finance Committee.
In addition, a poll by Sociopolis showedthat Ukrainian entrepreneurs have a positive attitude toward President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but a significantly negative attitude toward MP Danylo Hetmantsev.