KYIV, Sept 21 – The government will ask Parliament to urgently consider the draft law lowering the export duty on sunflower from 23 to 10 percent, said Mykhailo Hlady, deputy prime minister in charge of the agro-industrial sector, Ukrainian News reported.
“We are hoping for the understanding and support [of deputies],” Hlady said.
The Cabinet of Ministers prepared the draft law on the 10 percent seasonal export duty on oil-bearing crops after several parliamentary rejections of the government-proposed draft law on abolition of the 23 percent export duty on sunflower.
The IMF considers cancellation of the 23 percent duty on sunflower exports one of the conditions for renewed financing for Ukraine.
The 23 percent duty on sunflower exports has been in force since October 2, 1999.
According to State Statistics Committee data, in the 1999/2000 season (September 1999 – May 2000), sunflower exports stood at 284 thousand tons (in the 1998/1999 season companies exported around 830 thousand tons of sunflower).
