In January–July 2026, Ukraine imported machinery, equipment, and vehicles worth $25.7 billion, accounting for more than 44% of the country’s total merchandise imports, according to the State Customs Service.
The second-largest category was fuel and energy products, with imports totaling $8.5 billion, followed by chemical industry products at $8 billion.
Collectively, these three commodity categories accounted for $42.2 billion, or about 73% of Ukraine’s imports over the seven-month period.
During customs clearance of machinery, equipment, and vehicles, 145.5 billion UAH in customs duties were paid to the state budget, accounting for 28% of the corresponding revenue.
Fuel and energy products accounted for 172.7 billion UAH, or 34% of customs duties, while chemical products accounted for 66.5 billion UAH, or 13%.
Thus, the three largest import categories accounted for about 75% of customs duties.
Total imports of goods into Ukraine in January–July rose by 26.6% compared to the same period last year—to $58.1 billion.
The largest supplier countries were China with $16.8 billion, Poland with $5.5 billion, and Germany with $3.8 billion.
The State Customs Service of Ukraine transferred UAH 420.1 billion in customs payments to the state budget in the first half of 2026, which is 31.9% more than in the same period last year, the Experts Club information and analytical center reports.
In January–June 2025, revenues amounted to UAH 318.5 billion. Thus, over the year, the budget received an additional approximately UAH 101.6 billion. The official data were published by the State Customs Service on July 13, 2026.
The Experts Club Analytical Center compared the State Customs Service’s data with the Ministry of Finance’s operational report on the execution of the state budget for January–June 2026.
Ranking of Customs Revenues by Main Categories
Value-added tax on goods imported into the customs territory of Ukraine remains the main source of customs revenues.
It accounted for approximately 75.7% of all payments transferred by the State Customs Service in the first half of the year. In other words, approximately three out of every four hryvnias of customs revenues were generated by import VAT.
The high share of VAT is explained by the fact that the tax is charged on virtually all taxable imports, including equipment, raw materials, fuel, cars, consumer goods and products intended for industrial use.
After deducting import VAT and customs duties from the total amount, approximately UAH 70.9 billion, or 16.9% of revenues, remains.
The main part of this amount should consist of excise duty on imported excisable goods, primarily petroleum products, cars, alcoholic beverages and tobacco products.
However, in its operational report, the Ministry of Finance indicated only the total excise tax revenues from domestically produced and imported goods — UAH 152.4 billion. The separate amount of import excise duty was not disclosed in the report. Therefore, the figure of UAH 70.9 billion is an estimate and may also include small amounts of other payments administered by customs authorities.
Revenues from import and export duties in the first half of the year amounted to UAH 31 billion, or approximately 7.4% of the total volume of customs payments.
The share of customs duties is significantly lower than that of import VAT because zero or reduced rates apply to many goods under Ukraine’s free trade agreements. In addition, certain categories of equipment, energy products and defense-related goods benefit from tax and customs exemptions.
Structure of Ukraine’s Customs Revenues
Thus, the approximate structure of the UAH 420.1 billion is as follows:
VAT on imported goods — UAH 318.2 billion, or 75.7%.
Import excise duty and other payments — approximately UAH 70.9 billion, or 16.9%.
Import and export duties — UAH 31 billion, or 7.4%.
The Experts Club calculation shows that Ukrainian customs primarily performs the function of administering import VAT. Customs duties themselves account for less than one-tenth of the total volume of revenues.
Cars Accounted for More Than 7% of All Payments
Imports of passenger cars brought UAH 32.1 billion to the state budget in the first half of the year. This corresponds to approximately 7.6% of all revenues transferred by the State Customs Service.
At the same time, petrol-powered cars alone generated UAH 14.6 billion, or approximately 3.5% of all Ukraine’s customs revenues for the six-month period.
Thus, payments from passenger car imports exceeded the total revenues from import and export duties across all product categories.
Large Importers Accounted for 85% of Revenues
In the first half of the year, customs payments were made by 28,300 foreign economic activity participants. Their number increased by 2.5% compared with January–June 2025.
At the same time, only 2,350 companies, or approximately 8% of all payers, accounted for 85% of revenues. Their combined contribution can be estimated at approximately UAH 357 billion.
Another 10,600 enterprises, each of which transferred between UAH 1 million and UAH 20 million, generated UAH 53.5 billion.
Approximately 15,300 representatives of small and medium-sized businesses paid up to UAH 1 million each. Their combined contribution amounted to almost UAH 4.8 billion.
This indicates a high concentration of customs revenues: the majority of revenues depend on a relatively small group of large importers of fuel, cars, machinery, raw materials, pharmaceuticals and consumer products.
Customs Accounted for More Than One-Fifth of General Fund Revenues
In January–June 2026, UAH 1.898 trillion was received by the general fund of Ukraine’s state budget. Customs payments amounting to UAH 420.1 billion were equivalent to approximately 22.1% of this amount.
Including the general and special funds, state budget revenues for the first half of the year amounted to UAH 2.52 trillion.
The 31.9% growth in customs revenues significantly outpaced the increase in the number of payers, which amounted to only 2.5%. This indicates that the main growth factors were an increase in the value of taxable imports, changes in the exchange rate, an increased tax burden on certain categories and higher payments from the largest companies.
The most comprehensive official source of detailed information by budget classification codes is the state Open Budget portal. The State Customs Service publishes the total volume of payments and the structure of payers, while the Ministry of Finance publishes the main tax categories. At the time this material was prepared, a separate comprehensive table from the State Customs Service showing the distribution of the UAH 420.1 billion across all types of payments in a single document had not been published.
Imports of goods into Ukraine from January through June 2026, in monetary terms, increased by 29% compared to the same period in 2025—from $38.3 billion to $49.3 billion, according to data from the Telegram channel of the State Customs Service (SCS) of Ukraine.
In contrast, the value of exports is growing more slowly: in January–June 2026, it totaled $21 billion, compared to $20 billion a year earlier.
“At the same time, taxable imports totaled $34.6 billion, accounting for 70% of the total volume of imported goods. The tax burden per kilogram of taxable imports in January–June 2026 was $0.58/kg,” the publication states.
The largest volumes of goods were imported into Ukraine from China ($13.9 billion), Poland ($4.7 billion), and Germany ($3.2 billion). The largest exports from Ukraine went to Poland ($2.4 billion), Turkey ($1.8 billion), and Italy ($1.3 billion).
Of the total volume of goods imported in January–June 2026, 72% consisted of the following categories: machinery, equipment, and transportation—$21.3 billion (upon customs clearance of these goods, 120.6 billion UAH, or 28% of customs duties, was paid to the budget); fuel and energy products—$7.4 billion (UAH 148.3 billion, or 34% of customs revenue), and chemical industry products—$6.9 billion (UAH 56.8 billion, or 13% of customs revenue).
The top three most exported goods from Ukraine were food products—$12.5 billion; metals and metal products—$2.2 billion; and machinery, equipment, and transportation vehicles—$1.8 billion.
The State Customs Service added that from January through June 2026, 802.3 million UAH was paid to the budget during customs clearance of exports of goods subject to export duties.
The State Tax Service and the State Customs Service exceeded their monthly revenue targets for the general fund in March 2026, generating a total of 9.5 billion UAH in additional revenue, according to the Ministry of Finance.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the State Tax Service exceeded its target by 1.9% (+3.1 billion UAH) in March, while the State Customs Service exceeded its target by 8.8% (+6.4 billion UAH). For the period from January to March, the State Tax Service’s revenue target fulfillment rate was 100.6% (+2.1 billion UAH), and the State Customs Service’s was 101.7% (+3.3 billion UAH).
In 2023-2024, the State Customs Service of Ukraine cleared 103.7 million shipments, of which 94.6 million were imports and only 9.1 million were exports, according to a joint report by the customs office and Ukrposhta.
Of the total number of shipments processed over two years, about 60 million were delivered by Ukrposhta, according to the Ukrposhta website on Thursday.
The largest volume of shipments (73.7 thousand tons) was imported from China. Poland was in second place (38.6 thousand tons), and the United States was in third place (16.1 thousand tons). In addition, 4 thousand tons of shipments were received from the UK, 2.3 thousand tons – from the Czech Republic, 2.1 thousand tons – from Israel, 1.6 thousand tons – from Canada, 1.4 thousand tons – from Germany, 1.3 thousand tons – from Estonia.
According to the report, the most popular export destinations were the United States, which accounted for 46.65% of shipments during the period, the United Kingdom – 8.19%, Germany – 6.61%, Canada – 5.59%, France – 3.07%, Australia – 2.66%, Poland – 2.32%, Israel – 2.1%, Switzerland – 1.67%, Italy – 1.36%.
According to Ukrposhta, the most frequently ordered items by Ukrainians abroad were jewelry (6.23%), phone cases (5.37%), women’s clothing (3.28%), makeup and manicure products (3.28%), lighting devices (2.29%), toys (2.03%), cables (1.62%), phone protectors (1.51%), socks (1.3%), and chargers (1.14%).
The predominant value of goods ordered by Ukrainians over the past two years (81.33%) did not exceed EUR10. In the range of EUR10-20, 10.6% of goods were ordered, EUR20-50 – 5.3%, EUR50-100 – 1.9%, EUR100-150 – 0.5%, and more than EUR150 – 0.3%.
In 2024, 71.5% of all shipments were processed in less than three hours, 28% were processed up to 24 hours after arrival, and only 0.5% took longer than a day, Ukrposhta reported, emphasizing that electronic declaration was a significant step towards speeding up delivery.
The company reminded that 100% of parcels in Ukraine go through customs procedures exclusively electronically (paperless format).
The situation at customs can be significantly improved in a year by implementing six key steps, including common bases with the EU and joint checkpoints, electronic queues, rotations, scanners and digitalization, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said at a press conference in Kiev on Friday.
“I have a clear understanding of what the state needs to do now at customs, and we are actually on that path. I voiced it, there are five or six steps. The first one is to enter into a common database system with the EU,” said the prime minister.
He explained that it will allow to load a car in any point of Europe, to take a single customs declaration and to transit with it through any checkpoint in any city of Ukraine and to clear customs by this single declaration.
Shmygal noted that now Ukraine gets access to certain sections of this register, but the base of the customs value remains closed for the time being.
“Now we are working with the European Commission on a political decision to open full access to the joint registers of databases of Europe, to make 99% impossible as an element of abuse through customs mechanisms,” – said Prime Minister.
The second step he called increasing the number of checkpoints with joint control and with shared databases, as currently there is only one such checkpoint, built for “Euro 2012” in the Lviv region.
The third element of the reform, according to Shmygal, is the rotation of employees. “Why are there temptations at customs? Because when people work long in one place, there is an opportunity to see and negotiate. We have to overcome this temptation,” said the prime minister.
Shmygal stressed that scanners will be an important innovation, because they are necessary for the implementation of the fifth element – the risk-oriented system, which will reduce the proportion of goods subject to customs and border control to 7%. Reliable exporters and importers will only need to check the car on the scanner to confirm the absence of drugs or migrants, explained the head of the government.
The sixth element the prime minister indicated digitalization, namely the introduction of electronic queuing. According to him, the implemented experiment with the electronic queue at the Krakowiec point is a success, and now the state plans to extend it to all points.
“I would call all of these approaches the Six Elements of Customs Reform. They are all simple, but they will practically eliminate the possibility of corrupt influences at customs at all. We are working on this now, there is a team solution. It cannot be done in a day or a month, but it can be done in a year,” explained Shmygal.
Speaking about personnel decisions, he pointed out that formally State Customs Service is within the competence of the Ministry of Finance. “But I do not want to and I can’t put the responsibility on the Minister of Finance, because this is a joint responsibility of the government team,” said the prime minister.
