Klymenko – UAH 13.5 bn of taxes collected in June is the lowest indicator of proceeds to the national budget in 2014

Former Minister of Revenue and Duties of Ukraine Oleksandr Klymenko believes that the Ministry of Revenue and Duties failed to fulfill the tasks set for the first half of 2014.

He posted a corresponding message on his Facebook page. Referring to the data, which the former minister has in possession, proceeds to the budget from taxes amounted to UAH 96.2 bn in the first half of the year. “Despite the “heroic” fight against envelope wages and other windmills, the ministry managed to fulfill only 96.9% of the plan of proceeds set by the Ministry of Finance at UAH 99.2 bn (in fact the plan was reduced in March),” notes Klymenko. Thus, based on the results of H1 the budget fell short of UAH 3 bn in tax proceeds. Compared with the previous year the volume of taxes collected over this period is UAH 6.3 bn lower (UAH 102.5 bn in H1 2013).

“Of course one can argue that the previous government should be blamed for everything, because it was responsible for the budget proceeds in January and partially in February,” he writes. “However, June statistics immediately destroys this argument.” Klymenko provides the following statistics. UAH 13.5 bn of taxes collected in June is the lowest indicator of proceeds to the national budget in 2014. In the first month of the summer, the plan for tax proceeds was fulfilled by only 83%. Compared with May, UAH 4.2 bn less was collected. As a result, in June the budget fell short of UAH 2.8 bn in tax proceeds.

The situation is no better with proceeds from customs duties. In the first half of the year, the national budget received UAH 4 bn less proceeds from customs duties than was planned by the Ministry of Finance (plan – UAH 52.5 bn, factual proceeds – UAH 48.6 bn). Last year proceeds from customs duties during this period amounted to UAH 51.4 bn, while this year the indicator is UAH 2.8 bn lower. In June, the plan of proceeds from customs duties was fulfilled by only 77.7%, with the budget falling short of UAH 2.5 bn.

“Do you think that it is the vacation period at the ministry? Maybe so. But even those, who did not leave for vacation, are not straining themselves with doing overtime. At least, there are no lights in any of the windows of the ministry’s building on Lvivska Square after 8:00 pm. Even the windows of the monitoring center, which should operate around the clock, are dark,” writes Klymenko.

The former minister recommends the new leadership of the ministry to “break away from such pleasant pastime as giving interview to local and foreign journalists and finally get down to business”.