The Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) voted in the second reading and in general for draft laws No. 11258 and No. 11259, which amend the Tax Code and exempt from value added tax and customs payments the import of goods for the needs of production and/or repair of mechanized demining machines.
Peopleʼs deputy from the "Holos" faction, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, reported that 305 and 313 votes were received for the documents, respectively.
Since the main manufacturers of mining equipment are abroad, the law will facilitate the import of spare parts, components and equipment. This will help develop the production of demining machines in Ukraine and make this process cheaper.
Zheleznyak added that the approved documents contain amendments on exemption from customs duties and VAT on the importation into Ukraine of equipment for the energy industry — electric generators, equipment for wind and solar generation, batteries (except for low power) and equipment for countermeasures against technical intelligence.
- Due to the war, Ukraine is one of the most mined countries in the world: almost 174,000 square kilometers are already mined, and this area will expand due to constant fighting and shelling from Russia. At least 30% of the territory is contaminated by Russian mines. Earlier, the press officer of the State Emergency Service, Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, said that, according to the approximate calculations of sappers, it will take up to 10 years to demine the entire Ukraine, but these are only preliminary calculations.
- In 2023, sappers demined 343 square kilometers of the territory of Ukraine. In terms of area, it is like two Liechtensteins.