IMF won't credit Ukraine for fulfilling the structural beacon due to substitution of draft law

First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy Yaroslav Zhelezniak said this. 

"I received information from three sources - we have a problem with №8401 and the memorandum with the IMF. In short: they do not count the fulfillment of the structural beacon, because at the last moment there was a change in the wording of the law, which no one agreed with the IMF. It concerns the restriction of inspections," he wrote.

According to him, the text prepared for the second reading stated that inspections would be returned only for the largest business entities.

"But then there was a meeting in the Rada: the prime minister, the Rada leadership, the finance minister, the deputy head of the President's Office, and representatives of all factions. At the last minute, [Deputy Head of the Prosecutor General's Office] Rostyslav Shurma proposed to exclude part of the wording on inspections," Zhelezniak said.

He noted that he immediately opposed the idea. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Finance Minister Marchenko were also against it. But Shurma allegedly promised to negotiate and settle the issue.

According to the MP, the IMF will pay much more attention to the clause on inspections, and in the following conditions it will be a real return and even strengthening, not nominal (as originally envisaged in the text of 8401). Zhelezniak emphasized that such tightening could pose significant risks to business.

• On July 26, President Zelenskyy signed a law on the return of tax audits.