Rada finance committee advances defence city bills to second reading
The Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy recommended adopting draft laws No. 13420 (amendments to the Tax Code) and No. 13421 (amendments to the Customs Code) as a basis for implementing the Defence City concept with significant amendments.
As the head of the committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, said on Telegram channel on Tuesday, the documents had been significantly revised by the second reading.
The Defence City legal regime will be in effect until January 1, 2036 (but no later than the year of Ukraine's accession to the EU), and instead of the list of defense industry enterprises, a Defence City register will be created, the maintenance of which will be provided by the Ministry of Defense. Requirements for Defence City residents, procedures and grounds for granting, terminating and losing this status, as well as the control procedure will be regulated by the Law of Ukraine "On National Security".
It is assumed that the share of qualified income of a Defence City resident should be at least 75% of the total income (except for aircraft manufacturing entities, for which it is at least 50%).
Hetmantsev added that enterprises from the register will be provided with support tools, some of which have also been specified: tax benefits (exemption from income tax subject to reinvestment, as well as exemption from land tax, real estate tax, environmental tax); simplification of customs procedures; simplified export control for military goods (without obtaining authorization); the possibility of the NBU establishing the features of currency supervision and currency transactions and support in the process of relocation and increasing the security of the defense industry's production facilities.
The chairman of the committee recalled that the initiative was developed jointly with the Ministry of Defense. During the development, the initiators of the special regime also worked closely with business.
As reported, the European Business Association (EBA) and the Patients of Ukraine Foundation announced amendments to draft law No. 13420, which provide for amendments to the Law "On Medicines" and are aimed at regulating the circulation of medicines, which may lead to disruption of state procurement programs for medicines and their shortage. The amendments also introduce mandatory state laboratory control of all batches of medicines imported into Ukraine without exceptions by origin.