Kyiv, August 10, 2015. The State Fiscal Service (SFS) introduced its Envoy on Entrepreneurship (Business Ombudsman) to enhance effectiveness of dialogue between the SFS and taxpayers, said Roman Nasirov, Head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine at a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. “It is our own initiative. The Envoy on Entrepreneurship institution introduced under the SFS is expected to become an effective tool for communication with businesses. The envoy needs to systematize and coordinate dialogue between taxpayers and the SFS,” noted the SFS Head.
Taras Kachka, Ukraine Reforms Communications Taskforce Team Leader, will be the first to hold the position. He will work as the Business Ombudsman on a voluntary unpaid basis.
Commenting on his appointment, Kachka noted that the envoy’s task is less to resolve individual entrepreneurs’ problems and more to reinforce the SFS’s internal processes, focusing on resolving systematic problems businesses face. “It is unlikely that by introducing the Business Ombudsman institution under the SFS, all the problems that businesses face will be resolved. It cannot become a substitute for legal mechanisms. It is rather an additional instrument that will accelerate the search for solutions,” noted Kachka.
The newly appointed Envoy on Entrepreneurship emphasized that tax reform will have a bigger focus on improving administration of taxes rather than on tax rates. This is why establishing effective dialogue with businesses is important. “Corporate communication culture between entrepreneurs and the State Fiscal Service has to change. The Business Ombudsman institution introduced under the SFS will enhance this process,” said Kachka.
Roman Nasirov added that the State Fiscal Service has been tasked with resolving all procedural details pertaining to the Envoy on Entrepreneurship’s successful commencement of his work, such as phone numbers, email addresses and the premises where the work will take place through August.
