Volodymyr Groysman: Our main objective is to remove all obstacles to reduce pressure of public authorities on people

Among the priorities of newly appointed Cabinet Ministers are the tasks to ensure transparent operation of the customs, and the overcoming of the arbitrariness of controlling authorities towards entrepreneurs, thus enabling to ease pressure of the authorities on citizens. This was announced by Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman during the meeting of the National Reform Council on Tuesday, April 19.

In particular, according to the Head of Government, it is vital to secure the transparency in operation of the Ukrainian customs. "The SFS have shadow flows in the customs that should be transferred to the Central budget but they aren’t. This is a challenge for all of us - to put things in order in this sector, to ensure everycopeck accounted and the customs completely transparent," said Volodymyr Groysman.

The Prime Minister stressed that it is unacceptable to carry out certain procedures in manual mode at the customs. "Manual operating is real abuse that is used by customs officials to take a bribe", he noted.

The Head of Government thanked the President for his principled stance and support in this issue. There is also a commitment of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine and support of the Parliament regarding reforming of this sector, he said.

"We will quickly introduce order there and will upgrade the operation of the customs so that people could clearly understand the transfer of goods, their customs value, how to tackle smuggling, how to solve an issue of underpayments. Everyone will have an opportunity to realize himself in deeds but not just in words, hence we are going to address this issue now", emphasized Volodymyr Groysman.

Another inadmissible thing is pressure on businesses by regulatory authorities, stressed the Prime Minister. The Government will suppress any attempts of such abuse. According to him, if representatives of public authorities prolong to terrorize enterprises, "we will suppress it immediately". Volodymyr Groysman noted that he would invite them personally to a Government meeting, "and let the whole country see the faces of those who bully domestic producers, those creating new jobs and paying taxes," he said.

The Prime Minister stressed that Ukraine must ensure favourable environment for doing business.

"The Ministers are well aware about it. I think that after some time everyone will manage to prove his effectiveness at his particular post and to remove all barriers that enable authorities making pressure on the people. This is our main task. I think we will be able to find proper answers to these questions very quickly", he said.

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