IMF eases terms for new arrangement for Ukraine - PM
MOSCOW. Feb 16 (Interfax) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to Ukraine has eased the terms of its previous agreement with Ukraine on a new arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) reached in November 2025, particularly revising the structural benchmarks and prior actions that have to be completed, Ukrainian media quoted Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko as saying.
"The Ukrainian program will be considered at the next meeting of the IMF Executive Board," Sviridenko told journalists, adding that the revision of the initial agreements was prompted, among other things, by consultations with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who had visited Kiev in January.
The taxation of individual entrepreneurs remains the most sensitive issue, Sviridenko said. "Nuances are important here. In our work with the IMF, we agreed to raise the threshold [annual income] for introducing VAT for individual entrepreneurs to UAH 4 million [an equivalent of around 85,000 euros], which is the maximum effective VAT level on goods in Europe. Therefore, these changes will not affect two-thirds of all individual entrepreneurs," she said.
When exactly this provision will take effect has yet to be determined, Sviridenko said. "There has been a lot of discussions on how this should be done. We're working with the parliamentarians and are likely to adopt these measures as part of a consolidated tax bill. It will also involve issues related to digital platforms, parcels, and the retention of military tax after the end of martial law, which are appreciated by the business community," she said.
She pointed out that Ukraine's cooperation program with the IMF is the anchor for all international financial support, including for receiving a 90-billion-euro loan from the European Union.
As reported, a $15.6 billion four-year arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility for Ukraine had been in effect since March 2023, and its ninth tranche of SDR1.117 billion (around $1.6 billion) was scheduled for December 2025.
The program initially provided for external financing for Ukraine involving international partners in the amount of $115 billion in the baseline and $140 billion in the negative scenario. As the crisis continued, these figures were increased to $153 billion and $165 billion, respectively.
As the IMF mission worked in Kiev on September 3-10, 2025, Sviridenko, along with the National Bank of Ukraine governor and finance minister, asked the IMF to launch a new program for Ukraine, tentatively for 2026-2029.
The IMF and Ukraine reached staff-level agreement on a new four-year arrangement under the EFF for around $8.1 billion at the end of November 2025.
"The program is expected to catalyze large-scale external support to close Ukraine's financing gaps. In the baseline, the total financing gap is calculated at around $136.5 billion for 2026-2029. In 2026-2027, Ukraine faces a residual financing gap (taking into account existing financing commitments) of around $63 billion," head of the IMF mission Gavin Gray said at the time.
A new program could be brought to the IMF's Executive Board for approval upon completion of the prior actions and subject to adequate financing assurances from donors, the IMF said.
Ukraine has completed only one of these prior actions by now, namely the adoption of the 2026 state budget. Ukraine has yet to adopt legislation on taxing income received through digital platforms and on taxing parcels, and to submit to the Rada a bill on VAT for individual entrepreneurs, where the threshold was initially set at UAH 1 million.
