Kyiv, July 27, 2015. The experiment on harbor dues reduction by 50 percent may start in two weeks’ time, said Andriy Pyvovarovskyi, the Minister of Infrastructure, during a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center, as a part of the Ukraine Reforms Communications Taskforce project.
“I have already signed a corresponding decree which is being discussed at present. Provided it receives no substantive remarks, it will come into effect in two weeks’ time. Nevertheless, it will be no less than in six months that we will know whether the idea is efficient. Harbor dues reduction by 50 percent does not automatically result in the ability to renew international transporters’ confidence. Unfortunately, their trust was being undermined for a long time through corruption and bureaucracy. We will need to conduct numerous meetings, to persuade business representatives,” said Pyvovarovskyi.
Transportation tax reduction is a logical follow-up for deregulation policy in the transportation sphere. Moreover, fulfilling the responsibility of the Ministry of Infrastructure, the new regulations are in compliance with international practice. The Cabinet of Ministers approved four decrees over the first 10 days of July simplifying Ukrainian business functions in harbors. These decrees are intended to save up to 8 billion hryvnia per year and radically lower corruption. See the link for more detailed information on seaport deregulation.
Specifically, regulations refer to changes in the approach to environmental controls on ballasts, changes to customs procedures and a new approach to tariffs. These decrees will enable the introduction of a ‘single window’ model to organize the flow of electronic documents at seaports.
“We have deregulated everything we could on the level of the Ministry of Infrastructure. The State Fiscal Service is logically the one to make the next step,” said Pyvovarskyi.
Business representatives, in their turn, believe that the actions initiated by the Ministry of Infrastructure will favor competitive practices in harbors, thus taking into account business interests.
“We are going to support steps made by the Ministry of Infrastructure. We are grateful for support businesses are receiving. We appreciate the possibility of having competitive harbors. We request further initiatives in the sphere of customs procedures improvement. For instance, it refers to introducing control over the time of conducting a customs control as well as optimization of the number of documents to be presented by a business etc. We are also ready to join discussions as an expert panel,” said Yuliya Malich, logistics committee coordinator for the European Business Association (EBA).
“Sometimes, it is more important to approve regulatory changes than to reduce tariffs in order to renew confidence in the Ukrainian economy,” said Taras Kachka, Head of the Ukraine Reforms Communications Taskforce at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
