State budget lacks nearly UAH 50 bln each year due customs revenue underperformance – MP Hetmantsev

The state budget lacks about UAH 50 billion a year due customs revenue underperformance, Head of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy Danylo Hetmantsev has said.

"We assume that the state budget lacks about UAH 50 billion due customs revenue underperformance," he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Hetmantsev said that the new leadership of the authority was tasked to perform the receipts target by 112%.

"So far, we have demanded the dismissal of a top official guilty of the schemes, and have given a very simple KPI for customs: 12% more to the budgeted figure," the parliamentarian said.

"If the indicative figure is met by December, we will delve into the internal processes of the service (tariffs and prices, work on certain categories of goods, green channel, etc.) as part of parliamentary control. If the indicative figure is not met, we will fire deputy heads in charge of the implementation of budget targets and heads of departments shown the worst results in the implementation of targets of the customs office. This is work for several months, but in a few months we will put things in order," the head of the committee said.

Early November, the Cabinet of Ministers temporarily entrusted the powers of the head of the State Customs Service to the director of the anti-smuggling department Viacheslav Demchenko.

"This is a new person. On behalf of the committee, I will say that we are not yet ready to assess his work. It's early. But I can express a negative opinion about everyone else who works there, both the management and those who are at the customs offices. We decided to start with reaching receipts above the target," Hetmantsev said, commenting on this appointment.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua