Arakhamia: Only virtuous manufacturers will be subject to special conditions for defense enterprises within the framework of Defence City

As part of the Defence City initiative, which provides special conditions for Ukrainian arms manufacturers, a separate List of defence enterprises will be created. Those who get there will be able to receive tax benefits, simplify the procedures for relocating production, export products, and also disappear from public registers.

However, the benefits will not apply to everyone, but only to so-called bona fide manufacturers.

This was stated in an interview with Babel by the head of the “Servant of the People” faction Davyd Arakhamia, one of the authors of the bill.

According to him, it is currently unknown who will determine the composition of the List, this will be regulated by bylaws. The decision will probably be made by a collegial body under the Ministry of Defense.

"We want the Ministry of Defense to determine what they need. For example, there is a drone war going on now, so drones, high-precision weapons are a priority, so these manufacturers will probably be a priority. Robotic platforms with artificial intelligence will appear tomorrow — change the law? We set the framework, and the Ministry of Defense will decide who is significant and who is not — with its by-laws," says Arakhamia.

The text of the bill states that the company must receive at least 90% of its income from defense orders, pay taxes regularly, and have no enforcement proceedings. Regarding the requirements, Arakhamia says that it would probably be wrong for the Law to provide an exhaustive list, because then maneuverability would be lost. And Defence City was invented because "Ukraine should be a country of arms manufacturers".

"Over a thousand new manufacturers have appeared in the countryʼs defense industry during the three years of the war. There are cases when people have built modern underground facilities for loading ammunition. But criminal cases are being opened against them for building something not according to the project, not assessing the environmental impact, or not complying with labor protection laws. People were forced to violate [legislation] to protect production. They understood that sooner or later there would be some kind of amnesty, because the main thing is supplies [to the front]. We want this project to extend to honest weapons manufacturers," explains Arakhamia.

According to him, a formally honest manufacturer looks like this: it has no tax debts, no enforcement proceedings, no delays before the customer. Arakhamia clarifies that intermediaries and "shims" do not fall under these criteria.

"The dishonest swindlers who have surrounded the Ministry of Defense since the time of [former Defense Minister Oleksiy] Reznikov will not fall under such an amnesty," he emphasized.

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