Ukrainian businessmen are the next to sue the government,
after bankers. "We couldn't establish a dialogue with the Cabinet, so the
Ukrainian Association of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs has filed a claim
with the Supreme Arbitration Court. It is about the Cabinet's ill-famed
resolution on levying indirect VAT on enterprises. This resolution runs
counter to the Constitution," declares UAIE First Vice President Oleksiy
Miroshnychenko.
A very demonstrative trend, meaning that everyone's patience with the
powers that be is at an end, including people directly dependent on the
executive. "This hypocritical government is getting out of line. Time to
show it its place," The Day was told by a reputable Kyiv businessman.
Anyway, UAIE representatives, known for their boundless tolerance, were
more diplomatic. To them, the Cabinet's next VAT demarche was like lancing
an overripe throbbing boil. Yevhen Romanov, Chairman of the Board of the
I. B. S. Firm, informed The Day's Mykhailo Bidenko that "laws and
decrees issued by a government strongly resembling a dictatorship do not
create jobs." Leonid Rubanenko, Chairman of the Council, Kharkiv regional
office of UAIE, notes that "whenever the Cabinet works out the next resolution
everything is done contrary to our needs."
And the Cabinet? It is being sarcastic. This February it referred to
the financial condition of business entities as critical, as though it
were excellent or at least bearable anytime previously. The impression
is that the government has spent several years somewhere in Switzerland,
knowing nothing about the "virtues" of Ukrainian taxation or complete anarchy
of the controlling authorities (growing like mushrooms after rain), dropping
hryvnia, stock market collapse, debts, and enfeebled budget. There are
hair-raising Cabinet statistics saying that last year 55% industrial and
90% agricultural enterprises were in the red. All this did not start last
year or even the year before. As of December 1, 1998, accounts payable
were 1.6 times the gross domestic product (once again, this is official
statistis).
So what conclusions did the government arrive at?
Minister of the Economy Vasyl Rohovy: "Payments to the budget are evidence
that the taxpayers have consciously embarked on the road of ignoring the
national interests." This author might add that this "conscious" ignoring
the "national interests" is not the cause but the consequence, since the
state has long worked for and finally achieved a relationship with business
circles.






