30 June 2010, 14:30
Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, believes that the issue on the Tax Code disclosed the myth regarding professional and even-tempered ‘strong team´ of new authorities. "Every day since the moment of submittal and adoption of the Code, all the influential dignitaries responsible for the economic issues either criticized the Code severely or reject it", he emphasised.
M. Tomenko declared that it might have been possible to explain discontent with the Code adopted in the first reading on the part of the Administration of the President, as "they might not have participated in the drafting of the Code." However, it is nonsense on the part of the Deputy Prime Ministers to declare that the Tax Code was to be reconsidered, "as they discussed it in the course of the Governmental sitting, hence they voted for it before submitting to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine."
Commenting upon the latest declaration of the Government on this document, M. Tomenko also pointed out the lack of legislation competence on the part of the Government representatives. In particular, in the result of the last meeting of "The Reformation Club", Serhii Tihipko announced that he charged the Ministry on Finance to consider all the amendments to the Tax Code suggested by the Club. However, M. Tomenko reminded that after the bill is adopted in the first reading, all amendments to the second reading are referred to the relevant profile Committee (On Taxation and Customs Policy). Ministries have no right of legislative initiative contrary to the President of Ukraine, People´s Deputies of Ukraine and Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
M. Tomenko reminded that he had registered the amendments to the Draft Tax Code of Ukraine in the second reading. M.Tomenko suggested that all the provisions concerning establishment of a new supervisory body - a specialized state tax inspectorate, and its authorities be excluded from the draft. Thus, the Draft Tax Code adopted as a basis extends the authorities of the supervisory bodies regarding supervision over the taxation subjects legal entities and individuals, by establishing a specialized state tax inspectorate. The Draft Tax Code authorizes this institution and its tax inspectors to exert tax control by ‘indirect means´: economic analysis, monitoring, analogies and drawing economic analogies to control the expenditures and the revenue of individual taxpayers; extends the grounds for the conduct of extraordinary on-site inquiries; envisages exertion of the tax control by means of ‘survey of the individual taxpayers´; authorizes the tax inspectors to inspect the territory, premises and property of the taxpayers, etc.