No tax reforms will be passed in Ukraine within the next two years, according to Valeriy Pysarenko, a parliament member with Yulia Tymoshenko�s Block. His statement came Thursday during a discussion about Ukraine�s new Tax Code.
�Today, there�s no strong, unified power � neither in the parliament nor beyond � which can implement an effective tax reform,� Pysarenko said. He added that around the world, reforms are carried out after elections, when a strong power is in place capable of amending the constitution.
�In Ukraine, each successive government is preoccupied not with a tax reform, but with providing tax privileges and special conditions to particular companies. That�s why there are no grounds to expect improvements any time soon,� the deputy said.
Pysarenko also said that time would soon run out for the adoption of new Tax Code amendments for 2009. �This means that in 2009, the tax regulations will be essentially the same as they are now.�
According to an earlier UNIAN report, at the end of May Ukraine�s Security and Defense Council asked the government to submit a draft Tax Code to the parliament as soon as possible. The council�s chairman Rayisa Bohatyryova said that the new Code should take effect in 2009. The same demands were voiced by President Viktor Yushchenko in February 2008.
On January 30, 2008, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said that the new Tax Code would be adopted only following a public discussion. �We have started work on a new Tax Code. The main responsibility for its development rests with the Finance Ministry. But I think that we�ll propose the draft code for public discussion as we did with the government�s action program,� Tymoshenko said.
