Fight against "black grain": Parliament adopted two draft laws

The Verkhovna Rada has adopted in the second reading bills #10168-2 and #10169-2 aimed at combating "black grain" and non-return of foreign exchange earnings, UNN reports citing reports from the deputy corps.

Details

"The Verkhovna Rada adopted in the second reading the draft law No. 10168-2, which will amend the Tax Code on foreign economic operations for the export of certain goods. In favor - 236. Ibid: the second reading of the draft law No. 10169-2 on amendments to the Customs Code was adopted. Vote in favor - 235," wrote MP Oleksiy Honcharenko.

At the same time, the MP pointed out that "during the consideration of amendments to the second reading, we managed to correct the crazy norms a little bit.

MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak pointed out that "they adopted the normal amendment No. 33 instead. That is, they then supported the normal version." He also said that "fines for failure to submit CFC reports were canceled until the end of martial law.

Details

According to the explanatory memorandum, both draft laws propose to introduce mechanisms that minimize the possibility of abuse in the export of agricultural products, which ensures greater foreign exchange earnings for the state and affects the stability of the national currency.

As reported in the relevant committee, draft law No. 10168-2 authorizes the Cabinet of Ministers to introduce an export security regime for certain types of goods (mainly agricultural products under certain codes of the Ukrainian Classification of Goods for Foreign Economic Activity), which has the following features:

• in case the Cabinet of Ministers introduces the export security regime, the export of such goods by foreign economic operators that are not VAT payers is prohibited; 
• it is prohibited to export such goods at prices lower than the minimum permissible export prices (prices will be determined by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food in accordance with the procedure established by the Cabinet of Ministers);
• before exporting such goods, the taxpayer must register a tax invoice at the rates:

1. 0% - taxpayers whose amount of unreturned foreign currency earnings does not exceed 20% (the procedure for calculating this indicator will be determined by the CMU); 
2. 14 or 20% (at the rate for domestic supply of the relevant goods) - all other taxpayers. Such taxpayers will be able to adjust the VAT rate to 0% only after the tax authorities receive information from the bank on the completion of settlements under the relevant export transaction.

Draft Law No. 10169-2, as reported by the Tax Committee  , provides for the following peculiarities of customs clearance of certain types of agricultural products during the period of the export security regime introduced by the government:

• when declaring agricultural products (according to the codes defined in the draft Law No. 10168-2), the customs declaration must include information on the tax invoice drawn up by the declarant. Such a customs declaration must contain information on only one product and the details of one relevant tax invoice;
• the invoice value of the declared goods cannot be lower than the value of these goods calculated in accordance with the minimum permissible export prices;
• it is not allowed to submit one additional declaration to several periodic or simplified customs declarations for such goods;
• in the last additional declaration to the relevant periodic or simplified declaration, the declarant indicates the completion of the movement of goods under such periodic or simplified customs declaration;
• Upon completion of customs clearance of agricultural exports, the State Customs Service will provide information from customs declarations to the State Tax Service.

Remarks

The European Business Association (EBA) has expressed its comments on the draft laws, statingthat they are "likely to create corruption risks due to the possible establishment of a manual regime for regulating agricultural exports." Attention is drawn to the provisions on the possibility of blocking export tax invoices and the procedure for setting minimum export prices.