There will be no customs clearance in Diya yet. Why did the Council fail the vote and whatʼs next?

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has just failed to vote on draft laws on customs clearance "in a smartphone". There were not enough votes in "Dia" to adopt as a basis the mechanism on customs clearance of passenger cars. The deputies were also unable to send the documents for revision.

Customs clearance in smartphones has been talked about for more than 2 years. For the first time, the idea was voiced by representatives of the "Office of Simple Decisions and Results". Subsequently, the projects were proposed by peopleʼs deputies, in the end the initiative was taken up by the Cabinet of Ministers, and in July 2022 it registered the corresponding draft laws: No. 7466 and No. 7468.

The main "driver" of the reform was the Ministry of Digital Transformation, which repeatedly announced the mechanism for registration of car imports in "Diya" and called it one of the main digital reforms of the Customs Service. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned this in one of his evening addresses.

What happened?

Today, February 24, the Verkhovna Rada voted on these draft laws. Only 212 and 206 parliamentarians, respectively, out of the required 226, voted "for", Peopleʼs Deputy Yaroslav Zhelezniak told the Institute of Car Market Research.

In total, there were more than 9 attempts to adopt new rules, voting was done for both the main draft laws and alternative ones, but there were not enough votes in each of them. It was also not possible to send draft laws for repeated first reading or revision.

Why were there not enough votes?

As noted in the Institute of Car Market Research, most of the specialized committees, some Ministries and other state bodies had comments on the draft laws. Also, certain norms did not correspond to European law, and the single formula for customs clearance for all cars, regardless of their condition or origin, caused dissatisfaction among automobile businesses importing used cars from America.

However, this step could temporarily exclude the influence of the human factor on determining the customs value of a car, and therefore create a level playing field and eradicate corruption in this segment, experts are convinced.

According to Yaroslav Zheleznyak, this situation is an indicator that the idea is not conceptually supported in the parliament hall, and they will not return to considering this issue in the near future. And the solution to the problem of corruption at the customs office should be sought not by "patching holes", but by globally reforming the department, says the peopleʼs deputy.

Whatʼs next?

According to the regulations of the Verkhovna Rada, it is no longer possible to return to consideration of these draft laws. Now, in order to "resuscitate" the process of introducing customs clearance in "Diya", it is necessary to go through the entire process from the very beginning: register new draft laws, undergo their consideration in specialized committees and vote in the parliament hall.

According to the experts of the Institute of Car Market Research, the draft laws will definitely be re-registered. Perhaps in a slightly different version, but conceptually they will not abandon the idea, because this issue has long since gone beyond the technical solution of the problem into the image-political plane. For the Ministry of Digital Affairs, this item is one of the main ones to implement. It is also possible that the President may personally initiate draft laws again.

If the draft law is considered according to the full, non-abbreviated procedure, it may take at least a few more months.

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