Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ruslan Ryaboshapka, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Yuriy Lavrenyuk, Head of the State Customs Service Maksym Nefyodov and newly elected MP Vladyslav Krykliy met with representatives of drivers and reached an understanding on how to solve the problems of the vehicles that haven’t passed customs clearance. The car owners expressed concern about the penalties for exceeding the length of stay in Ukraine of such vehicles (up to UAH 170 thousand or confiscation of the vehicle by court decision), which will come into force on August 22, 2019.
“More than a month ago, the President urged the Parliament to postpone disproportionately tough sanctions for violation of the terms of customs clearance of imported cars and offered to consider the given issue at an extraordinary meeting. However, the Verkhovna Rada of the VIII convocation refused to do so. This bill is currently a priority and will be submitted for consideration again at the first session of the parliament of a new convocation. The Verkhovna Rada should approve the bill and the penalties will be postponed,” Ruslan Ryaboshapka explained the situation.
According to him, the penalties are planned to be postponed for three months. Over this time, legislative initiatives will be worked out to resolve the problems with the customs clearance of cars and establish proportionate penalties in case of violation of the law.
“The current legislation is imperfect. In many cases, it cannot be implemented. Today, an agreement was reached on the creation of a working group on the basis of the parliament, which will work out the necessary changes taking into account the proposals from the representatives of car owners,” the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office noted.
The participants of the meeting intend to work constructively to establish transparent and effective rules and sanctions for their violation, taking into account the observance of the proper environmental standards.
According to various estimates, today, there are about 800 thousand cars in Ukraine that haven’t passed customs clearance.