Talking about the most important legislative decisions - 2020 was the best year for the agricultural sector. The most important bills were developed with the participation of UAC experts.
The most significant event in the agricultural life of the country was the adoption of the law on the land market. Its key provisions meet medium and small farmers’ requirements, which were approved by UAC members last summer:
- from July 2021, the land market will start to function only for individuals with a limit of 100 hectares for one enterprise;
- legal entities are allowed to the market from 2024 with a restriction on the purchase of land of 10 thousand hectares, instead of 214 thousand hectares, as it was proposed previously. Only Ukrainians can be owners of land;
- foreigners will have the right to buy agricultural land if such a decision is approved at All-Ukrainian referendum.
With the active UAC participation, a number of initiatives were canceled and prevented, which (because of their adoption), would cause great losses to farmers:
- "Soybean edits" have been canceled. For two years, farmers have been fighting to repeal discriminatory amendments to the tax code that have abolished VAT refunds on soybean and rapeseed exports. Farmers had huge losses. This year they were finally canceled.
- The quota for the fertilizers import, which the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade wanted to introduce, was not allowed. This decision could lead to the monopolization of the fertilizer market in Ukraine by one corporation and as a result - their significant rise of price.
- Obtaining a permit for the movement of large machinery was revoked, which due to their long-term registration made it difficult to carry out agricultural work.
- The conditions for obtaining licenses for fuel depots have been simplified. The previous conditions required agricultural producers to draw up a large number of documents and significant financial costs.
The draft laws, which had been made with the help of UAC experts, were adopted:
- Law on Agricultural Cooperation, one of the joint author of which was UAC Deputy Chairman Mykhailo Sokolov. The novelty of the law is that it allows legal entities to unite in profitable cooperatives. Due to this, farmers can make large batches of goods and open new sales markets, competing with agricultural holdings.
- The law on the VAT rate reducing from 20% to 14% on certain types of agricultural products, which contributes to legalization of all parts of the agricultural sector and allows farmers to save working capital.
Budget-2021:
- The law on state support takes into account UAC’s amendments, due to which, for the first time, the state budget provides for expenditures to help agricultural producers and agricultural cooperatives that have lost their crops because of man-caused and natural emergencies.
- Also, agricultural cooperatives will be included as recipients to all state support programs.
- In addition, funds are provided for the development of agricultural insurance. The law "On the peculiarities of agricultural products insurance with state support" includes proposed by UAC’s changes to the insurance of agricultural producers’ income.
Not allowed:
- exclusion of VAT on grain exports;
- establishing control over the combines’ movement;
- quotas for grain exports.
- establishment of customs duties on fuel imports;
Thanks to the joint work of UAC Deputy Head Olha Bohdanova and the State Tax Service, a mechanism has been established to block tax invoices of agricultural producers.
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Thursday, 24 December 2020