Fund makes this one of main demands to resume lending to Ukraine
‘MS Mincho'”>KYIV, Mar. 28 (Ukrainian News) – The International Monetary Fund is insisting that the Ukrainian government lower its sunflower export duty to 10 percent as one of its main demands to resume lending to Ukraine, a government official said Tuesday.
According to First Deputy Prime Minister Yury Yekhanurov, the lowering of the export duty on sunflower and cancellation of tax breaks are the IMF’s main demands, without which the fund will not resume its lending.
Yekhanurov also said that the Cabinet of Ministers would propose lowering the export duty on sunflower to 10 percent during the second reading of the relevant draft law.
Parliament on March 15 adopted the first reading of a draft law that provides for lowering the export duty on sunflower from the current 23 to 17 percent.
Prior to passage of the draft law, Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko told the parliament that the 23 percent duty on sunseed had outlived its usefulness and was set to do more harm than good if kept.
Throughout last year, parliament rejected the Cabinet’s proposal to either abolish or lower the export duty to 10 percent.
The sunseed duty was introduced in October 1999. The IMF has severely criticized the duty and has demanded its lowering as one of its demands to lend Ukraine more money.
Ukraine received the most recent tranche of the IMF’s three-year Extended Fund Facility loan in December last year.
The IMF, which had earlier planned to disburse the next loan tranche to Ukraine in March, postponed this decision pending further talks with Ukrainian officials on first meeting crucial IMF demands.
