The Verkhovna Rada has adopted amendments to the Tax Code to ensure the balance of budget revenues in 2018, which foresees an increase in excise duties for tobacco products by 29.7%, environmental tax rates by 11.2%, and royalty (apart from production of extractable resources) by 16.8%.

According to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent, 252 deputies voted for the respective bill, No. 6776-d, late on Thursday, December 7.

The explanatory note to the document says that the indexation corresponds to the projected growth of the consumer and producer price indexes.

The bill envisages the gradual increase of the specific excise rate for tobacco and the minimum excise duty until 2025, namely by 29.7% in 2018, and next years – by 20% to the level equivalent to EUR 90 per 1,000 cigarettes.

Today, the minimum excise duty for cigarettes in Ukraine is EUR 20 (UAH 596.05) per 1,000 cigarettes.

According to the document, the adoption of the bill would increase revenues of the Ukrainian national budget. In particular, general revenue from the introduction of these requirements in 2018 would total UAH 12.46 billion, including UAH 11.74 billion from excise duties for tobacco.

In addition, 244 more proposals were submitted during the finalization of the draft law for second reading, and 178 of them, according to the head of the concerned committee, Nina Yuzhanina, were taken into account.

In particular, the Verkhovna Rada permitted for five years, without paying value added tax (VAT) and excise rates, imports of electric vehicles and reduced to 6% and 12% the rental payment for gas extraction from new wells (with a depth of more than five kilometers and up to five kilometers respectively) and introduced a 24-month deferment for VAT payment upon import of equipment.