BES reform: Parliamentary Tax Committee Supports Government Draft Law Despite Business Associations' Position
The Tax Committee of the Verkhovna Rada has supported the government's draft law No. 10439 on the reform of the Bureau of Economic Security (BES), despite the position of business associations, NGOs and expert centers, Ekonomichna Pravda reports.
The approval of the draft law was announced by the chairman of the committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, and his first deputy, Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
According to Zhelezniak, 22 members of the committee supported the government bill.
According to him, the alternative draft law No. 10439-2, which was agreed upon by the business, was recommended to be rejected.
Earlier it was reported that the Law Enforcement and Tax Committees of the Verkhovna Rada plan to meet extraordinary to consider draft law No. 10439 on the reform of the Bureau of Economic Security. At the same time, the largest business associations criticized this draft law and supported an alternative one - No. 10439-2.
TheEuropean Business Associationreacted to theattempt to urgently adopt the government's draft law .
"We sincerely hope that the voice of business will be heard and the draft law No. 10439-2 (alternative, submitted by the Tax Committee - EP) will be supported, which will really be able to reform the BES, ensuring the creation of a transparent and independent body aimed at finding and punishing real economic offenders, rather than controlling and putting pressure on transparent businesses," the statement reads.
They also propose to reject the government's draft law No. 10439 on the BES and to support the draft law No. 10439-2 in the Rada: Institute for Social and Economic Transformation, CASE Ukraine, Institute for Tax Reforms, Center for Economic Strategy, and others.
They drew attention to the following shortcomings of the government's draft law
- imperfect principles of forming a competition commission to elect the head of the BES;
- lack of requirements for immediate re-certification of BES employees;
- lack of provisions on the analytical direction in the work of the renewed BES.
Analysts emphasize that for the reboot of the Bureau of Economic Security, it is advisable to provide only those procedures that have proven effective in reforming other government agencies (NABU and NAPC).
A similar statement was also made by the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council.
As a reminder:
The Cabinet of Ministers registered in the Verkhovna Rada the draft law No. 10439 "On the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine" to improve the work of the Bureau.
Instead, the Anti-Corruption Action Center notes that the main drawback of the BES reform according to the Cabinet of Ministers' draft law is the lack of proper mechanisms for re-certification and dismissal of dishonest employees of the Bureau.
TheEuropean Business Association opposed government draft laws No. 10439 and No. 10440 on reforming the BES in their current versions. The Association proposes to finalize the already registered draft laws No. 10088 and 10088-1.
Draft lawNo. 10439-2 on the reform of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BES) was registered in theVerkhovna Rada - it is registered as an alternative to the draft law previously submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers, which actually left the BES under the control of the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Oleg Tatarov.
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