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expressed their distrust of Rudyk and Zheleznyak. They demanded Rudyk’s expulsion from the party for missing over 60% of parliamentary sessions.
Ukraine’s parliament approved on June 15 a tax amnesty bill that will let people voluntarily declare untaxed assets by paying a one-time fee to the state budget over the next 12 months. In total, 243 lawmakers voted for the bill, initiated by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in its final reading. Ukrainians who have accumulated assets but failed to pay taxes on them, can declare them voluntarily from Sept. 1, 2021 to Sept. 1, 2022, pay a one-time fee and escape punishment for tax evasion. People can declare real and movable property, money and securities without mentioning sources of their profits. The law stipulates that people will have to pay a 5% fee for assets held in Ukraine that they declare voluntarily. There is a higher rate of 9% for assets held abroad and a lower rate of 2.5% for investments in Ukrainian government bonds. Assets worth less than Hr 400,000 ($14,900), apartments less than 120 square meters, houses less than 240 square meters, non-residential property less than 60 square meters and cars with less than 3,000 cubic centimeters engine and small land plots don’t fall under the law. The law doesn’t apply to top officials as president, lawmakers who served from Jan. 1, 2010, or anyone under sanctions or criminal investigations.
Ukraine’s parliament approved in the final reading on June 3 of bill #4651 to reinstate punishment for filing fraudulent electronic declarations or failure to file the declaration by state officials. A supermajority of 307 MPs voted in favour of the law, with a minimum 226 votes needed. Last minute changes to the bill allowed the declarants to not report on the assets of their family members. Another last-minute amendment was that the officials won’t be punished by a prison sentence for failure to declare. The president vetoed the bill. “I can't put under threat one of the main achievements on the way to EU integration – the visa-free regime," the release cited Zelensky. Analysts expect that MPs will change the bill after the president returns it with his comments. The approval of this bill is important for the IMF's first review on the on-going SBA program, so it is vital that the corrected version of the bill is approved within one month. Otherwise, the chances for the continuation of the program will fade significantly.
The Pentagon announced Friday a new package of $150mn in military assistance for Ukraine that will include counter-artillery radar, electronic warfare equipment and counter-drone technology, Reuters reports. The latest tranche of assistance will come in addition to the $125mn that the Pentagon announced on March 1, which included armed Mark VI patrol boats. President Biden is to meet with President Putin in Geneva on Wednesday.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas claimed on June 9 that Germany’s diplomatic role made it impossible to sell defence equipment to Ukraine, unian.info reported. At a joint press conference in Berlin with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Maas stated that because of Germany’s role as a intermediator, along with France, in the Normandy Four negotiations on Donbas, Germany could not supply arms to one side in the conflict.
Robert Habeck, co-chair of Germany’s Green Party, spoke out in favour of defensive arms sales to Ukraine the same week. In an interview with spiegel.de published on June 4, Habeck asked why Germany was sending weapons to Egypt, which was supplying Yemen in its war, but not Ukraine. He pointed out that he had gone to Kyiv and had spoken with President Zelensky.
14 UKRAINE Country Report July 2021 www.intellinews.com