The authorities of Ukraine have decided to strengthen the requirements for registration of export of grain and oil crops

The export of Ukrainian grain suffers from Russia's blockade of sea ports and the ban on imports by neighboring EU countries, as well as constant shelling of the port infrastructure. In recent weeks, the situation has been complicated by the police and tax authorities' fight against illegal exports (which has existed for a decade), which has paralyzed shipments from Danube ports.

In the ports of Reni and Izmail, large-scale searches and document checks were conducted at grain handling and export enterprises as part of the investigation into illegal grain export schemes. Also, the tax office prohibited the delivery of cargo to the port by companies suspected of illegal export.

According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, the main export of agricultural products goes through the Danube ports, through which 2.3 million tons were shipped in September (2.4 million tons in August) with a total export of 3.6 million tons.

It was possible to export only 700,000 tons of grain from the Black Sea ports through the new corridor in August-September, so the stable operation of the Danube ports is very important for Ukraine, which needs to export 6 million tons of agricultural products every month in order to preserve the agricultural industry as the basis of the economy.

Recently, inspections of operating businesses have become more frequent, and even blocking the operation of defense industry enterprises, which threatens to stop the production of weapons. One gets the impression that the government is trying to increase budget revenues, even by shutting down businesses operating during the war.

Chairman of the VRU Committee on Finance, Customs and Tax Policy D. Hetmantsev registered draft law No. 10169 "On Amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine on Improving the Implementation of Foreign Economic Operations on the Export of Certain Goods", which expands the list of grounds on which export registration may be refused grain or oil crops.

The bill offers the following list of grounds:

• lack of registration of the tax invoice, the details of which are indicated in the customs declaration and the Unified Tax Register;
• more than 30 days have passed since the date of registration of the tax invoice in the Unified Tax Register;
• the contract value of exported goods is lower than the minimum export price established in accordance with the procedure determined by the central executive body, which ensures the formation and implementation of the state agrarian policy;
• the invoice value of the goods calculated in hryvnias in the customs declaration exceeds the volume of supplies indicated in the corresponding tax invoice for each UCT code of the EZ;
• inconsistency of the UCT code of the goods, quantity, tax number of the payer in the customs declaration of the number of goods specified in the corresponding tax invoice;
• indicating in the customs declaration the number and date of the tax invoice, the details of which are already indicated in another customs declaration.

"The goal of the project is to minimize common tax evasion schemes in the export of agricultural products," the explanatory note reads.

Such "improvements" will make export more difficult for normal market participants, and it is not a fact that they will stop the work of "schemers" who buy grain for cash.