The Ukrainian parliament has adopted a draft law to cancel import duty on scrap metal, which is currently set at 5%.
Some 251 lawmakers voted for the adoption in first reading of the bill on amendments to the Law of Ukraine on the customs tariff of Ukraine regarding a reduction in ferrous scrap deficit on the domestic market to ensure priority needs of the defense industry and the restoration of infrastructure.
The required minimum is 226 votes.
Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship Viktor Halasyuk said, while reporting on bill No. 3873, it is aimed at ensuring uninterrupted raw material supplies to steel making enterprises.
At this, Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy Nina Yuzhanina said the government had supported the bill but asked to consider the timing of entering amendments into force as current tax rates could not be changed during the ongoing fiscal year. The state budget may fall short of UAH 3 million, it is noted. The government supported the adoption of the bill as a basis and as a whole.
The explanatory note to the document says that the bill aims to immediately address the shortfall of ferrous scrap on the domestic market to ensure priority needs of the defense industry and the restoration of infrastructure.
”According to the association of ferrous metallurgy enterprises Metallurgprom, scrap metal deficit in Ukraine rose to 600,000 tonnes over the nine months of 2015, as compared to lower than 100,000 tonnes in 2012. Such dynamics result in the need to increase the share of pig iron in steel making, which is more expensive, as well as boost imports of scrap and hot briquetted iron,” the note to the bill said.
UNIAN reported earlier that on July 12, 2016, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the bill, in keeping with the Ukrainian president`s proposals, ”On amendments to some laws of Ukraine regarding the reduction of ferrous scrap shortages in the domestic market to ensure priority needs of the defense industry and the restoration of infrastructure.”
The law called for an increase of up to EUR 30 per tonne in export duty on waste and scrap ferrous metals for the period of one year, as well as the abolition of mandatory state registration of contracts on scrap metal exports. The law came into force on October 5, 2016.
