Zelenskyy meets with business representatives: what was discussed

On Thursday, 29 June, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gathered several dozen of the country's largest businesspeople and representatives of business associations for a meeting for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war.

According to Ekonomichna Pravda, the meeting has ended.

As Forbes shared the day before, the key topics that were to be discussed during the meeting included increasing pressure on business and cancelling all tax perks introduced after the beginning of the full-scale invasion. According to the outlet, another goal of the meeting with business representatives on 29 June is to give the president a better understanding of how entrepreneurs see the economy and the country's economic policy in the long term.

Forbes reported that the meeting was to discuss, among other things, draft law No 8401, which cancels key business benefits and is supposed to bring back documentary checks and fines for not using cash registers.

Earlier, a working group on revising draft law No 8401 On the Cancellation of Tax Benefits Introduced at the Beginning of the War [i.e., full-scale invasion – ed.] had agreed on compromise criteria for the resumption of documentary checks.

And Danylo Hetmantsev, the head of the Ukrainian parliamentary tax committee, has said that business inspections and fines for companies in Ukraine will resume on 1 August, not 1 July as previously planned.

According to Forbes, not all businesses were satisfied with the final version of the draft law.

Another topic of discussion is the future of business after the war is over. During his speech to the Verkhovna Rada on Constitution Day on 28 June, Zelenskyy promised a radical reform of the tax and customs services, tax cuts and minimisation of officials' contact with citizens after the war.

"Ukraine needs a new tax contract between the state and society, real legalisation of property. But when Ukraine wins... tax cuts should mean increased tax compliance," the president said at the time.

According to a source in the President’s Office, during the meeting on 29 June, Zelenskyy wanted to "look into the eyes" of business representatives and prepare the ground for a new social contract.

According to Forbes, about 40 entrepreneurs and representatives of business associations were invited to the meeting.

Among them were Oleksandr Konotopskyi, founder of Ajax Systems, Viacheslav Klymov, co-owner of Nova Poshta, Oleksandr Kosovan, founder of MacPaw, and Oleh Horokhovskyi, co-founder of Monobank.

Andy Hunder, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, Kateryna Hlazkova, Executive Director of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, and others were at the meeting as well. According to Ekonomichna Pravda, the meeting was also attended by Serhii Pylypenko, the owner of Kovalska – the leading building materials manufacturer and property developer in Ukraine.

According to RBC-Ukraine, it was decided not to invite any of the oligarchs to the meeting.

According to Ekonomichna Pravda, none of the oligarchs attended the meeting – neither Akhmetov, nor Novynskyi, nor Pinchuk.

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