OREANDA-NEWS. February 01, 2016. The initiatives of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy are aimed at developing the cattle farming and promoting the production in the mentioned area to a higher organizational level. The livestock breeding has great potential in Ukraine due to favourable climate conditions, land, and human resources. The potential would be unlocked through an effective mechanism of the Government’s support, Oleksii Pavlenko stressed.

The Minister accentuated that the Government’s support of livestock breeding implies a range of activities and measures. In particular, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy has developed a number of projects aimed at cattle breeders’ support, for example, the Draft Law of Ukraine “On the Amendments to the Law of Ukraine on the export customs duty on live cattle and leather raw materials” and “On Amendments to Article 17-2 of the Law of Ukraine on Government’s support of agricultural sector of Ukraine”.

“The compromise version of the new Tax Code is one of the significant achievements. This Code provides great support for the livestock industry. Producers of milk and livestock have received the biggest grace term for the transition to the general VAT taxation system – they may keep up to 80% VAT on their private accounts, and only 20% must be transferred to the State Budget. Manufacturers of the other livestock products would have to divide the VAT funds in the proportion of 50 to 50”, the Minister stressed.

According to the Minister, the signing of an agreement with the European Bank on the investments in the amount of €400 million to the agrarian sphere would be a significant impetus for the livestock development. These funds are long and cheap credit money and they are designed to address a number of projects including those supporting the livestock industry.  

“At the same time, we have reiterated several times that deregulation is the best Government’s support for businesses. As of today, the procedures of obtaining licenses for enterprises in the industry have greatly simplified. In particular, under Law of Ukraine № 222  “On licensing of economic activities”, there is no need for licensing of economic activities of trade in breeding (genetic) resources, the genetic examination of origin and animals’ anomalies. Such steps promote the broadening the market of breeding resources and expansion in the number of entities engaged in such activities”, Minister Oleksii Pavlenko noted.