OREANDA-NEWS. March 24, 2011. Speaking at  meeting of the Governing Council of the Committee on Economic Reforms, President Viktor Yanukovych stressed that there are still problems in the relations between taxpayers and bodies of the Tax Office and the Customs Office.

"This is a separate issue. I believe that we should approach this subject and see how can we harmonize these two fiscal agencies’ work. I would like you to work through this question jointly with chairmen of the Tax Office and Customs Office," he said, addressing Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

He stressed he is not satisfied with these authorities’ performance of the task of filling the budget. While the Tax Office, at least on paper, has executed the plan of incomes to the budget by 104,2% (excluding the growth of delinquent VAT refunds), the Customs Office is about 600 million UAH behind the plan, he said.

"The general balance is positive. But we must understand why it has happened and what do we do in the future to prevent it," Viktor Yanukovych said.

At the same time, President Yanukovych noted, the performance of the Tax Office would have been different, if not for the continued accumulation of unreturned VAT, which, as of the beginning of March, amounted to 5 billion UAH, and not for the taxes levied 2 months in advance.

"There are still such cases. This practice must be stopped," he said.

President Yanukovych also said that tax authorities turned out to be unprepared for the introduction of monthly income tax accounting by individuals. "The submission of these declarations has turned into a mess, and produced long cues at the tax offices, whose employees could not provide clear explanations on filling out the new forms to the businessmen. So the first thing I demand is changing priorities," Viktor Yanukovych.

The President instructed to prepare and approve in a month term a program of reforming the State Customs Service and the State Tax Service, and to provide training and necessary legislative changes to implement it.

"I request the chairmen of these services, who are present at this meeting, to join their effort and offer a common and effective mechanism of responding to the challenge of filling state treasury, and ensuring cessation of the known shameful violations," he said.

Viktor Yanukovych also said that there has been buck passing in ministries with the approval of bills to simplify business making he had identified, such as on:

simplifying the procedure of termination of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs and starting businesses;

expanding the network of licensing centers by establishing ones in the regional administrations;

abolishing the need for paper certificates from the National Register for obtaining permits and licenses.

"I would like representatives of the Government and the Prime Minister present here to move on from talk to action. Perhaps, some officials still do not understand, what a historic moment for the country they have been entrusted their offices in, and what it demands of them,” he said.