KYIV. Dec 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukraine due to poor management and insufficient rule of law has seen a shortage of $70 billion in budget revenues over five years, according to a study by the Center for Economic Strategy.

"This amount exceeds the entire Ukrainian foreign debt. That is, the problem of servicing it could have been resolved by eliminating only the largest corruption schemes ... At the same time, this amount includes only losses in public finance, it does not reflect how much the economy, the private sector, for example, could have earned by introducing the land market, improving infrastructure, or eliminating the "holes" of "black" import-export," Hlib Vyshlinsky, the executive director of the Center for Economic Strategy, said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.

According to the study "How much does Ukraine's budget lose without rule of law?" the significant strengthening of the rule of law in Ukraine over five years could have an economic effect of $26.6 billion in one-time receipts and another $8.6 billion in additional revenues annually.

The expert noted that the largest amount in the structure of budget losses concerns the opening of the land market and tax evasion when paying wages. A transparent and full-fledged agricultural land market instead of the land lease market would open up opportunities for obtaining an additional $12.4 billion in the budget one-time and $52 million annually, analysts of the center calculated. At the same time, due to the "shadow" labor market, the state sees a shortage of $6 billion each year: $2.8 billion from the social security tax and $3.2 billion from the tax on personal income.