Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada to keep IMF's stance in mind while upgrading bills on industry preferences

MOSCOW. Feb 10 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada will keep the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s stance in mind while upgrading bills on industry preferences and will not adopt them in a form that could endanger cooperation with the IMF, head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Daniil Getmantsev said.

"The IMF disapproves of the bill in general. We have very difficult discussions with them. But rest assured we will not do anything that could lead to incoordination with partners today, considering the situation with state finance and the fact that they [foreign donors] provide half of budget revenue," Getmantsev said in an interview with Ukrainian media outlets on Thursday.

"So if they categorically reject the amendments, we will not adopt them," he said.

According to the explanatory note, the bill exempts domestic manufacturers from VAT and import duties on equipment until the end of martial law and introduces preferential iron ore and water tariffs for the martial law period, alongside unified tax preferences for 4th group payers.

The bill extends the period of service of registered cash registers, which expires during martial law, and abolishes taxation for electronic stamps and digital postage stamps and services for the demonstration and screening of films with Ukrainian dubbing.

Getmantsev said that was the demand of businesses, as industrial production had plummeted during the crisis.

The Verkhovna Rada adopted the bills in the first reading on January 12 by 246 and 234 votes, respectively, with the necessary minimum of 226 votes.

Golos faction member Yaroslav Zheleznyak said that the Finance Ministry and the IMF were against the bill, which contravened the IMF's Program Monitoring with Board Involvement.