The national budget in January-September 2012 saw a shortfall in revenues of about UAH 20 billion due to the excess number of tax and customs benefits, First Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Ihor Kaletnik has said.

"Even a preliminary analysis indicates that the shortfall of funds the state saw is not comparable with the effect of such preferences. First of all, profit tax benefits should be revised," he said.

According to him, "almost half of the benefits are a zero VAT on imports of natural gas. UAH 1.5 billion is benefits for imports of energy saving equipment. And about UAH 7 billion is VAT benefits for imports of medicines and medical equipment."

He added that the amount of customs VAT benefits, excise duty benefits and import duty benefits in 2012 amounted to UAH 43 billion.

According to Kaletnik, income tax benefits for the priority sectors of the economy should remain to support start-up businesses, "at the early stages of opening business," and for state-owned enterprises, which without such preferences will become unprofitable.

However, he said he believes that tax preferences should be introduced temporarily and only after the detailed justification of their introduction by the government of Ukraine.

"Now the list of branches, the list of companies receiving tax benefits, is regulated manually. They should be introduced on the basis of a strategic analysis temporarily under the responsibility of the Cabinet of Ministers," he said.