Measures to take Ukrainian economy out of shadows yield $1.67 bln in budget revenues in Jan-Oct 2024 - MP

MOSCOW. Nov 18 (Interfax) - Measures to take the Ukrainian economy out of shadows yielded an equivalent of $1.67 billion in revenues to the state budget in January-October 2024, Ukrainian media quoted Daniil Getmantsev, head of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation, and Customs Policy, as saying on his social account.

"This money earlier ended up in the pockets of shady alcohol, fuel, and tobacco dealers and smugglers and was generously distributed through the corruption tumor in the machinery of government," Getmantsev said.

As of October 14, the size of international aid Ukraine received from the European Union in 2024 reached $13.05 billion, that from the United States $5.25 billion, from the International Monetary Fund $4.19 billion, from Japan $2.13 billion, from Canada $1.76 billion, from the United Kingdom, $0.52 billion, and from other partners $0.33 billion, Getmantsev said.

Thus, the extra budget revenues of $1.67 billion from measures to take the national economy out of shadows is comparable to the support Ukraine has received from Canada, the fifth largest partner by the size of financing it has provided to Ukraine this year, he said.

In particular, these measures have increased collections from taxes administered by the State Tax Service by an amount equivalent to 6.1% of international support Ukraine has received in 2024, he said.

"I am sure that if we had better results in collecting customs payments (which were 0.8% below the target for the first ten months and 13% below the target for October), the contribution to budget revenues from measures to take the economy out of shadows would've been considerably larger. Therefore, there's certainly something to work on here," Getmantsev said.