A roundtable on the topic of Implementing Reform of Public Finance Based on Partnership between Central and Local Governments, Business Community, and Civil Society was held at the Institute of Economy and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine on 15 June 2010. The event was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and the Institute for Budgetary and Socio-Economic Research, which is implementing the Municipal Finance Strengthening Initiative project supported by USAID.
The representatives of the Ministry of Finance, State Tax Administration, government organizations in the areas of economy and tax policy, business unions and associations, experts and researchers came together at the roundtable to discuss the problems related to modernization of public finance, preparation of a new tax code, the need of amending the Budget Code, as well as to identify the ways of strengthening the Public Private Partnership as the basis for sustainable development of Ukrainian economy.
This event has become a milestone for developing trust between the government and business, efficient and close cooperation with entrepreneurs, and engaging into an open and transparent dialog, in particular, in the context of taxation.
The meeting was chaired by Deputy Minister of Finance of Ukraine Tetyana I. Yefymenko.
The first session of the roundtable highlighted the key tasks facing the government on the road of modernizing the public finance in the context of macroeconomic stabilization. In particular, it was stressed that the government efforts in this area concentrate on building a balanced and efficient tax policy, developing a system of public finance, reasonable borrowing and transparent use of borrowed funds, further reduction of public deficit etc.
The second session of the event was devoted to discussing the topical issues of implementing reform of the tax system, strengths and weaknesses of the new tax legislation.
The defining mission of the tax reforms envisaged by a new tax code registered at the Verkhovna Rada on the same day and the Program of Economic Reforms for 2010-2014 is building a modern and fair fiscal policy in terms of taxation, equality of all taxpayers before the law, and achieving a sustainable development of the Ukrainian economy.
As Ms. Yefymenko said: “It is for the first time that the Tax Code makes a strong emphasis on shifting the tax burden from mobile factors of production, that is, from labor and capital, to the area, where taxation of resources takes place. Secondly, the Code introduces an investment and innovation component, offers unprecedented development preferences for business, and preferences for strengthening the financial base of local government. Also, we tried not to increase the burden on businesses, so as to make this document compliant with the standards of the European legislation.
Today, we are working towards making the financial and tax legislation in general compliant with the EU standards, so that it should be clear and attractive for investors, so that the Ukrainian tax system should be competitive within the world community and in the global economic space."
The agenda and other materials of the roundtable are available in the Events section at our website.
This report has been prepared based on the information posted on the website of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine.
Glyanec