No need to bring grain to a port that has no documents: how Kiper's “scandalous” decision increased the country's budget

The revolutionary, as it is called, order of the head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, Oleh Kiper, has yielded results: there is no export of grain purchased for cash, and the non-return of foreign exchange earnings to Ukraine has decreased by more than three times. Kiper shared the details of the order's implementation in an interview with Ukrinform, UNN reports.

Details

Citing data from the Ministry of Economy, Kiper said that the order increased export duties by 20% due to sunflower and oil.

"These are the cargoes that are subject to tax, grain exports are not. Prior to the signing of the order, the non-return of foreign currency earnings to Ukraine amounted to $7 billion, according to the National Bank. One-day firms shipped products abroad and resold them from offshore to offshore. According to the National Bank, the current non-return of foreign currency earnings is $2 billion. So this order has resulted in an increase in the budget and the return of foreign exchange earnings," Kiper said.

In addition, the order contributed to the fact that grain was no longer bought from farmers for cash, Kiper continued.

"I talked to farmers, and they told me that last year, before the order was signed, they were offered UAH 9,000 per ton of grain in cash and UAH 6,000 per ton by bank transfer. Today, they are paid UAH 6 thousand per ton in cash and UAH 9 thousand in non-cash payments. And non-cash payments mean salaries and taxes," he said.

The document has greatly simplified the process of grain shipment to the port, Kiper added.

"I allocate one minute of time to grain per month because the decree works. The farmer submits a declaration with the origin of the product. The customs sends these documents to the tax office, where they check whether the farmer has land, machinery, people, and pays taxes. If everything is fine, you can export the grain. If you don't provide the documents, you are denied loading. That's why the decree stipulates a period of 10 days, so that someone doesn't come and load God knows what and create a collapse in the port. The documents are checked during this period. There is no need to transport grain that has no documents," he says.

The order was signed in August 2023 and since then has blocked the export of agricultural products purchased from farmers for cash through the ports of Odesa region. Many market players were critical of the innovation, but in the end, both business and the state benefited from it.