Leading experts of the industry, people's deputies and market participants will discuss the consequences of the cancellation of VAT refunds when exporting oilseeds on May 16 within the framework of the Agri Invest Forum 2018.

“The Ministry of Finance does not support the abolition of VAT refunds for the export of soybeans and rapeseed”, said Yuriy Romanyuk, the director of the department on tax and customs policy, during the round table, which took place on May 14 in Kiev.

"The Ministry of Finance did not initiate these changes at the end of last year, and even did not support them. We were against the abolition of VAT refunds when exporting oilseeds," he said.

According to Romanyuk, the ministry supports all legislative initiatives aimed at the complete or partial abolition of "oil amendments" adopted by the Verkhovna Rada at the end of last year in violation of the rules.

Bagrat Aghizhanov, director of the department of financial and credit policy of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, added that the profile agrarian department also does not support the abolition of refund of export VAT for soybean and rape.

The deputy head of the Ukrainian Agricultural Council (UAC) Mikhail Sokolov noted that the preservation of non-reimbursement of export VAT for oil will lead to significant damage to agricultural producers. According to the estimates of the UAC, annual losses of agrarians will exceed UAH 8 billion. Therefore, agricultural producers require the Parliament to approve draft law No. 7403-2. Fifteen regional councils, international institutions, a number of people's deputies and all major agricultural associations supported this bill.

"It is impossible to make decisions in the state policy that support one branch at the expense of another. Now we are offering compromise options - lowering the tax rate or saving VAT refunds only for those agricultural producers who independently export soybeans. However, compromises should be sought "before", and not "after" the adoption of appropriate decisions ", - said Sokolov.

The provisions on maintaining VAT refunds for farmers who independently export oilseeds are reflected in the Draft Law No. 7403-d. However, according to experts present during the discussion, bill No. 7403-d leads to tax discrimination and contravenes international norms and obligations of Ukraine to the European Union.

According to the head of the department of financial-credit and tax policy of the National Science Center "Institute of Agrarian Economics" Leonid Tulush, only 50% of oil producers will be able to export oilseeds by themselves. And the remaining 50% will be forced to sell soy and rape at a low price exclusively within the country. "We are witnessing a clear discrimination against small producers," he said.

The Verkhovna Rada plans to consider bills №7403-2 and №7403-d on Thursday, May 17. If the deputies once again ignore the demands of the farmers and do not vote for the refund of VAT refunds when exporting oilseeds, agricultural producers will continue large-scale protests throughout the country.