Fiscal burden on agriculture to grow by UAH 20 bln in 2015, says ministry
The fiscal burden on the agriculture business in Ukraine will grow by UAH 20 billion in 2015 compared to the previous year, Deputy Agricultural Policy and Food Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Lapa has said.
"We in the ministry have calculated that amendments made during the adoption of the Budget Code, amendments to the Tax Code in December 2014 and during the whole 2014 resulted in an additional fiscal burden on the sector in the amount of UAH 20 billion," he said at a roundtable talk entitled "Threat to Food Security" held in Kyiv on Wednesday.
He said that in 2015 the sum of fixed agricultural tax has increased by 20 times (this year it was transformed into a single tax), the accumulation of value added tax for milk and meat processing companies has been lost and excise duties have grown.
"With the introduction of the additional import duty on agrarian resources the sum of additional expenses of agricultural producers will rise to UAH 30 billion in the annual equivalent," Lapa added.
He said that the additional fiscal burden cannot by influenced by agricultural transactions: the possibility of conducting high-quality spring work is falling for farmers.
"At present the more realistic assessment of a lack of financial resources [for spring works] is near UAH 15 billion," he said.
Previously, the ministry assessed the lack of funds in the sector at UAH 10 billion.