President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the government is actively seeking “alternative solutions” to finance the country’s Defence Forces. This was reported by Komersant ukrainskyi
reports news agency reports, citing the press service of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
“We are planning the decisions that need to be made to support our Defence Forces. And also to support economic activity in the country. So that we can not only save jobs, but also give the Ukrainian economy more opportunities, more growth potential,”
– Zelenskyy said.
According to the President, the government is already working on preparing relevant draft decisions that will be presented in the near future. One of the key agreements is to find alternative solutions that will not put additional pressure on legal businesses.
“The ministers will look for alternative solutions without putting pressure on the ‘white’ business. We also agreed on additional state steps to de-shadow the economy,” he added,
– he added.
In addition, Zelenskyy said that specific steps are being discussed to get $50 billion from frozen Russian assets.
“We need a real mechanism. We need the funds from the aggressor’s assets to work for real help in defending against the aggressor – for all this to work for the sake of Ukraine and Ukrainians in the coming months,”
– the President stressed, expressing hope for a quick resolution of this issue.
Tax increase or “alternative”?
Speaking of “alternative solutions”, the president did not specify what alternative he was talking about – most likely, he was referring to an alternative to the government’s recent efforts to raise taxes. However, there are so many attempts and ideas that it remains to be seen which initiatives the government is willing to abandon and which it will continue to promote.
For example, only three days ago, Forbes reported that the draft law on a general tax increase, although changed, still remains on the government’s agenda. It is also known that the government wants to impose taxes on taxi drivers and couriers. Agrarians and even jewellers are sounding the alarm about the possible tax increase.
The president’s current statement about “looking for an alternative” contradicts the position of Danylo Hetmantsev, the head of the Verkhovna Rada’s tax committee, who says there is no alternative to raising taxes.