​The Parliament approves the draft law on amendments to the Tax Code (No. 9260) in the second reading

The Parliament has adopted draft law No. 9260 “On Amendments to the Tax Code and Some Other Legislative Acts Concerning the Improvement of Administration and Review of Some of the Tax and Charge Rates”.

The draft law was supported by 236 votes.

The adoption of this law will make it possible to balance the budget revenues in 2019. It also contributes to the Ukraine’s commitments under the Association Agreement with the EU.

The new law includes, among others, the following regulations: 
• Reduction of the threshold value for duty-free import in international shipments from EUR 150 to EUR 100 starting from July 1, 2019. The proposed regulation about “three parcels” was discarded, since mail operators are not in position to administer this limitation;

• Increase of the environment tax rates starting from January 1, 2019. The rate of the tax on CO2 emissions will increase from UAH 0.41/ton to UAH 10/ton to motivate business to reduce pollution as well as to adjust this tax to the emission charges in the EU countries;

• Increase of the rates of the excise tax on tobacco products by 9% starting from July 1, 2019;

• Improvement of the electronic system for the control of fuel turnover starting from July 1, 2019 to increase the fuel excise tax revenues;

• Increase of the rates of the rent fee for the use of sub-soil resources by 2% for the production of oil and condensate (from 29% and 14% to 31% and 16% respectively, depending on the depth of oil and condensate fields) as well as by 0.8% for the production of iron ore (from 8% to 8.8%);

• Increase of the rent fee for the special use of forest resources by 50%;

• The import of electric cars (equipped with electric motors only) will remain exempt from the VAT and the excise until 2022.

The adoption of this law makes it possible to increase the revenues of the consolidated budget (in 2019) by UAH 6.3 billion, including UAH 5.9 billion to the state budget.