Government should consider exemption from mobilization for private entrepreneurs, it will bring billions to finance AFU, - Kozytskyi, head of LRMA
The Cabinet of Ministers should consider the possibility of exempting employees from mobilization who are employed by individual entrepreneurs. This will significantly increase revenues to the state and local budgets, and thus raise additional funds to finance the Armed Forces.
The head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration (RMA), Maksym Kozytskyi, wrote about this in his column for BusinessCensor.
He noted that the simplification of the procedure for exempting employees from mobilization through the Diia portal, as well as the strengthening of mobilization measures, encouraged businesses to leave the gray zone and officially pay salaries close to market rates.
At the same time, a large share of individual entrepreneurs who are employers pay wages close to the minimum wage. As a result, budgets of all levels are losing significant funds that could be used to support the Armed Forces, Kozytskyi points out.
"Of course, one could say that businesses are deliberately boosting their criticality metrics for exemption from mobilization. However, in my view, this is the most effective way for businesses to come out of the shadows and, overall, to reduce the shadow economy in the country. That said, such actions do little to incentivize individual entrepreneurs," said the head of the Lviv RMA.
At the same time, even in the IT sector, the average salary of individual entrepreneurs, of which more than 34.7 thousand are registered in Lviv region alone, is only UAH 8,132 in the first half of the year. At the same time, in those industries that have been granted the option of partial employee exemption from mobilization , official salaries have increased significantly.
"On a national scale, we are talking about the potential to attract billions of hryvnias to the budgets of all levels! And it is voluntary. Therefore, there is an urgent need to change and supplement the existing system of exempting employees from mobilization to ensure a balance between the army's need for people and the budget's need for funds. This will allow the society to see the principle of "serve or work" in action," emphasized Kozytskyi.
In view of this, the head of the Lviv RMA suggests that the government consider the possibility of exempting individual entrepreneurs and their employees from mobilization.
"The government and the Verkhovna Rada need to give an honest and frank answer about the activities of individual entrepreneurs: is it a legal form of entrepreneurial activity of an individual, or one of the tools for minimizing tax payments? Consideration should be given to introducing legislative changes and providing the possibility of exempting individual entrepreneurs and their employees from mobilization. The Lviv Regional Military Commissariat is ready to join the development of criteria and grounds for exempting from mobilization this category of persons liable for military service," added Kozytskyi.
