Businessman: Rebuilding on a military track is impossible without reforming tax and customs services

Ukraine needs to produce as much of its own weapons and military equipment as possible, as well as have the money to buy weapons and equipment from other countries. And this is possible by reforming our public services – tax and customs in the first place.

This was stated by Kostyantyn Zhuravel, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Employers’ Organizations of Odesa Region, at a briefing at the Ukraine-Odesa Media Center.

“War is a military solution to economic and political issues. Russia realized this earlier and rebuilt its economy for a military situation before we did. For a long time, we relied on someone else, not ourselves. Therefore, now we have to rebuild our economy, our business and the entire state very quickly in a military way. All the major forums that have been held since 2022 have been about “restoring Ukraine after the victory,” not about the conditions for the transition to a protracted war,” Zhuravel believes.

He suggests that all Ukrainians should reorganize themselves into a military mindset, but this should be along with reforming the entire public sector, especially the tax service and customs.

“Now is the time when every ordinary Ukrainian, every civil servant, every businessman has to say: ‘What have I done to ensure that the state has funds for the army? Now all businesses, except for construction and processing companies, have restored their positions to the levels of 2021. This can be said both for Odesa region and for the whole of Ukraine, with the numbers in front of us. Returning to tax audits, this is a difficult moment. Because the tax system has not been reformed, and businesses will start hiding money and going to work in the gray, going into the shadows,” said the Chairman of the Board of the Association of Employers’ Organizations of Odesa Region.

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