“photo pixabay.com The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine reported that the state budget may lose 800 million hryvnias in tax revenue in 2025 due to the adoption of draft law No. 14110 on the prohibition of nicotine…”, — write: www.unian.ua
photo by pixabay.comThe Ministry of Finance of Ukraine reported that the state budget may lose 800 million hryvnias in tax revenue in 2025 due to the adoption of draft law No. 14110 on the ban of nicotine patches.
The corresponding document is published on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
The basis for this assessment was draft law No. 14110, which provides for a ban in Ukraine on the category of nicotine pads (sachets, sachets, pouches). People’s deputy Maryana Bezugla became one of the initiators of the draft law.
Currently, this draft law is being processed in a committee, during which the government must give its assessment of the initiative. In particular, according to the Budget Code, the Ministry of Finance must assess the impact of the draft law on the indicators of the state budget.
“Implementation of the act may lead to losses of excise tax and VAT revenues to the general fund of the state budget in the amount of about UAH 0.8 billion per year (in terms of 2025),” the Ministry of Finance reports in its expert opinion.
During the hearing of the bill at the meeting of the Committee on the Health of the Nation, the risk that a total ban could lead to the transition of the market to the shadows and therefore to the loss of excise revenues was also discussed. Based on the results of the meeting, the participants agreed to develop an agreed compromise draft law that would take into account the proposals of all parties.
“In my opinion, the position of the military should be taken into account in the final document. Our defenders on the front lines often cannot smoke cigarettes for security reasons, and for them, spiders are an alternative. Therefore, I believe that during the martial law, bans or restrictions on the use of such products should not apply to the military,” said the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Health Mykhailo Radutskyi.
As of now, the authors of the draft law have not submitted proposals to cover possible budget losses. Although, according to the Budget Code of Ukraine, if the adoption of the draft law will lead to budget losses, the initiator is obliged to submit proposals to reduce expenses or provide sources of additional cash income to achieve a balanced budget.
We will remind that earlier a similar ban was adopted regarding the sale of electronic cigarettes with flavors different from tobacco. The relevant law entered into force on July 11, 2024. This has led to an increase in the share of the illegal e-cigarette market to 93.6%, according to Kantar research data. State budget losses, according to various estimates, amount to UAH 5 to 7.5 billion every year.