Ecology gains nothing from tax increases if these funds are not spent on modernizing industry.
Funds from the eco-tax must have a specific purpose and be directed to the eco-modernization of industry, otherwise, raising rates will not lead to an improvement in the environmental situation, and the money will simply dissolve in the budget. This was stated by Lyudmyla Tsyganok, President of the Professional Association of Environmentalists of Ukraine, at a press conference dedicated to Ukraine's "green" course.
"All environmental payments need to have their targeted use restored. If funds are not diluted in the budget, if there is no opaque system. Because now it is very difficult to understand where these funds are spent," Tsyganok said.
Only after that, according to the environmentalist, can environmental tax rates be increased. And in that case, the funds will indeed work to improve the environmental situation in the country.
"Then a phased increase in the rates of these payments. Only in such a format, when it is predictable, and not pointwise, at once. And then these funds dissolved somewhere in the budget, and the question arises: what did the environment gain from this," Tsyganok explained.
She noted that the government has now proposed to increase the environmental tax (bill 5600), but has not changed the system of using funds, which is ineffective.
"Now we see such a strange text of law 5600. There is an increase in rates under an unchanged system. That is, we understand that rates will grow, but where will these funds be spent again? Probably, to replenish the budget. We just need to honestly say that yes, with the help of these payments we will replenish the budget, but there is no talk about the quality of the environment," Tsyganok concluded.
Earlier, GMK Center Director Stanislav Zinchenko stated that eco-modernization of industry requires investments, financial incentives, and assistance from the state, not an increase in tax pressure on enterprises.
At the same time, ex-Prime Minister, President of the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Anatoliy Kinakh stated that the adoption of the bill on industrial emissions (No. 4167) in its current form would strike a blow to enterprises and deepen the industrial crisis.
It should be recalled that on May 21, the Verkhovna Rada failed for the second time to pass the bill on preventing, reducing, and controlling pollution resulting from industrial activities (No. 4167), and it was sent for revision.