Police reported traffic problems and minor incidents in downtown Kyiv resulting from the Nov. 22 protest against adoption of the new tax code.
Time-captioned photographs of Independence Square from the trade union building across the street purportedly shows not more than 5,000 demonstrators turned up up for the rally, after which organizers and dozens of their supporters pitched tents, sang songs and went to bed.
President Viktor Yanukovych on Nov. 22 in Brussels said he would be willing to sit down and talk with the leaders of the demonstration, but he added that they were unlikely to achieve all the changes they are demanding.
One group of protest organizers have made eight demands:
1. Veto the tax code.
2. Cancel the single social tax.
3. Cancel the pension fund tax for people paying a simple flat tax.
4. Dismissal of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and deputy prime ministers Sergei Tigipko and Borys Kolesnykov.
The group said it would accept a higher single flat tax, but insists on eliminating social and pension fund taxes.
Another group of protest organizers representing trade union members made addition demands:
1. Pass a law, according to which the minimum living wage is determined by a National Council of social partnership managed by trade union leaders, employers and government authorities. Pensions should not be taxed.
2. Minimum pensions should be raised to the level of the minimum living wage.
3. Social and value-added taxes for those paying simple flat tax should be lowered.
4. A special section of the tax code providing a simplified system for calculating revenue and outlays for small business owners engaged in trade, construction, service industries and agriculture, should be drafted.
5. Ukraine’s oppressive tax-collecting state organ, the State Tax Administration, which is notoriously corrupt, must be reformed.
6. Immediate compliance with international obligations for transfering regulation of economic activities to self-governing entrepreneur associations.
7. The Cabinet of Ministers must be dismissed for authoring the tax code adopted on Nov. 18 by parliament.
8. Harassment of the organizers of nationwide protests against the new tax code must end.
