The National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine (NSSMC) sees opportunities for the revival of the municipal bond market in Ukraine, is actively working toward this goal, and supports a bill on preferential taxation of individual income from these instruments, said Commission Chairman Oleksiy Semenyuk.
“I believe this is possible (the revival of the municipal bond market). Moreover, this process is already underway on a fairly large scale,” he said during a discussion on the prospects of the stock market in Ukraine, organized by the Kyiv International Economic Forum last week.
Semenyuk clarified that a meeting is tentatively scheduled for October 2 with representatives of cities with populations of 100,000 or more—which will also include representatives from the Ministry of Finance—to discuss the main issues hindering the progress of this process.
“The main problems there are clear and have been identified… I want to note that I believe in municipal bonds,” emphasized the Commission chairman.
According to him, cities have development budgets, and they currently have significant needs for a rapid transition to energy independence, so bonds are an attractive instrument for them.
Semenyuk believes that municipal bonds could also be of interest to investment funds and local revenue-generating enterprises.
At the same time, Serhiy Fursa, deputy director of securities trading at the investment firm Dragon Capital, expressed doubt that municipal bonds would attract investors under current conditions, when the Ministry of Finance is placing domestic government bonds on the market, the income from which is tax-exempt.
“This would be a good instrument, but, again, we have domestic government bonds and their yields, as well as the need to provide a risk premium. By the way, I don’t quite understand—and this is a question for analysts—how to assess the solvency of cities in Ukraine. At the moment, I don’t really see much demand for this,” the expert noted.
According to him, the main buyers right now are individuals who are focused on returns and tax benefits.
The head of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) reported that two bills on tax incentives are currently being considered for passage through the Verkhovna Rada. He clarified that the first concerns investment accounts exempt from personal income tax provided the investment term is at least three years, while the second concerns the “5+5” scheme: a 5% personal income tax rate and a 5% military levy instead of the current 18% + 5%. Semenyuk added that discussions regarding the latter bill are ongoing with the Ministry of Finance.
bond, city, INVESTMENT, NSSMC, TAX
