Azarov denies government plans to raise excise taxes on oil products

12:38, 29.05.2013 1 min read

Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has accused the opposition of groundlessly making people fear that the government plans to raise excise taxes on oil products.

"The latest horror story is an alleged increase in excise taxes on motor fuel," he said, while opening a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Simultaneously, the Finance Ministry issued a press release confirming that the Infrastructure Ministry proposed a bill to gradually raise excise taxes on oil products to increase funding for Ukrainian roads.

"The proposal of the Infrastructure Ministry is currently being considered by the Finance Ministry. The Finance Ministry and the government have currently made no decisions on this bill," reads the press release.

It says that the ministry supports the position of a balanced approach to changing tax and excise taxes.

"Therefore, the issue of increasing excise taxes on fuel requires a justified and long-term analysis of consequences, which prevents the consideration of this issue in the near term," the Finance Ministry reported.