Ukraine would calmly pass this autumn and winter thanks to the assistance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ukraine’s Alternate Executive Director in the IMF Vladyslav Rashkovan has said. “I am sure that we would calmly pass this autumn and next winter, including thanks to assistance from the IMF,” Rashkovan said in an interview with the Novoye Vremia magazine.
He said that Ukraine would soon receive the next tranche from the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
“I still hope that Ukraine will receive this money. I would think in terms of how it will help us to further implement the reforms that have been launched. Over the past four years it has been done more than in 23 years. The World Bank, the EBRD [the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development] and all international investors admit it, but we have lost a lot of time and we need to develop faster. The IMF is able to help us,” Rashkovan said.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) considers it possible to introduce an exit capital tax in Ukraine if mechanisms to cover possible budget losses are available, the member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy, People’s Deputy Tetiana Ostrikova (Samopomich), has said after a meeting with IMF representatives in the United States. “The first news is that the IMF does not oppose this tax and considers such a model of profit taxation possible taking into account certain factors. The second news is that the IMF does not directly support the bill on the exit capital tax, which the Ukrainian government uses, covering its inactivity in the tax sphere,” the press service of the Samopomich party said.
The party notes that the issue of the introduction by the president of Ukraine of a draft law on the exit capital tax, prepared by a working group under the Ministry of Finance, to the parliament, was postponed indefinitely, referring to correspondence with the IMF.
At the same time, the political force explained that the issue of the exit capital tax was not included in the memorandum between the IMF and Ukraine, therefore it is not a top priority for the fund. At the same time, the IMF is concerned about a lack of tangible tax reforms.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) maintains its expectation that Ukraine will attract $2 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2018 and predicts the next tranche will be received at the beginning of the third quarter of 2018. “As for the next tranche of a loan, we believe that this will be possible at the beginning of the third quarter. However, this is rather a technical calculation in terms of the progress of negotiations and receipt of consents at the technical level,” Deputy NBU Governor Dmytro Solohub said at a briefing in Kyiv.
According to him, the NBU currently does not have any specific information about the date of the next visit of the IMF mission to Kyiv. At the same time, Solohub reported that the Ukrainian delegation planned to attend the Annual and Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.
“The traditional spring meetings of the IMF will be held at the end of next week, and the Ukrainian delegation will be present at them. These are not only negotiations with the [IMF] mission to discuss the [EFF] program, these are also meetings with other international organizations,” he said.
