Quality administration: an economist explained why the tax service increased budget revenues
Kyiv • UNN
In February 2025, tax revenues to the budget increased by 12 billion UAH compared to last year. There is a significant increase in personal income tax, value-added tax, and excise duties, while the number of blocked tax invoices has significantly decreased.
The change of teams in the tax service is yielding initial results. Economist Oleksandr Kusch wrote on his page on Facebook, analyzing the growth of tax revenues to the budget for the second consecutive month, reports UNN.
"The change of teams in the tax service is yielding initial results. The so-called 'Hetmantsev Group' is gradually being pushed to the sidelines," writes the expert.
He cites the statistics of tax revenues for February of the current year. In February of this year, the budget received 78.8 billion hryvnias (+ 12 billion UAH compared to February 2024).
"This growth at least compensates for the inflation of nominal revenues," noted the economist.
Revenue is increasing from such types of taxes as personal income tax (PIT), value-added tax (VAT), and excise duties:
- 26.2 billion UAH – this is an increase from PIT (+13.6%);
- 21.6 billion – this is an increase in VAT revenues (+13.3%);
- more than 10 billion UAH – this is an increase from excise duties on Ukrainian goods (alcohol, tobacco, fuel).
There is also an observed increase in the inflow of funds from excise duties on tobacco products - an increase of 2.5 billion UAH and a growth of +62.6%. For imports, excise revenues have nearly doubled: an increase of 2.5 billion UAH.
"Moreover, last year was a leap year, and despite the one-day difference, adjusting statistics based on the calendar can sometimes have a significant impact on the indicators. However, here we see that revenues in February 2025 significantly exceed the figures from February 2024. And they offset the impact of inflation on the level of nominal tax revenues. And here we do not take into account those taxes and fees where the tax rate was sharply increased, for example, the military tax. That is, the increase in revenues occurred due to more effective administration," Kusch believes.
The economist also drew attention to the aspect of blocking tax invoices, which he called a "toxic story."
"Previously, businesses were blocked from issuing tax invoices for formal reasons. Now, only 0.39% of invoices in the SMKOR system are classified as risky. Compared to last year, 9,000 enterprises have ceased to be 'risky'. This is almost a cancellation of tax serfdom, which was carried out through the blocking of tax invoices, leading to the illegal draining of enterprises' working capital," writes the expert.
"Let’s hope that Ruslan Kravchenko has decided not just to 'sit out' his position, but to actually bring order to the tax administration system. The key indicator here will be the number of blocked tax invoices. In January – February 2025, their number significantly decreased, and entrepreneurs received the unblocking of their circulating resources," the economist added.
He promised to monitor the situation going forward.
According to him, while in the game of "Ruslan Kravchenko's team" and "Hetmantsev's team," the score is 2:0 in favor of the taxpayers.
Reminder
The State Tax Service of Ukraine exceeded the plan for revenues in January-February by 21.9 billion UAH, which is +16.5% of the plan. Thus, in January, the excess amounted to 9.8 billion UAH, and in February – 12.1 billion UAH.