Internet tariffs are expected to rise in Ukraine on October 1 — what does Hetmantsev have to do with it?

As early as October, Ukrainians may face tariff increases and problems with Internet access.

The reason is that starting October 1, telecommunications providers are to be transferred to the general taxation system, while most of them currently operate as individual entrepreneurs, paying a single tax (mainly providers operating in villages or towns).

«Such micro-companies will be forced to quickly expand their staff to administer the general taxation system, and the additional costs will ultimately be passed on to the end user. In general, this will affect all subscribers, but in villages the service is already more expensive than in cities», — said Oleksandr Petrunya, organizer of the Ukrainian Conference of Operators and Services (UCOS).

It is reported that the proposal to switch providers to the general taxation system came from MP Danylo Hetmantsev, who chairs the Verkhovna Rada’s tax committee.

Currently, representatives of the Internet business registered a petition with a demand to freeze Hetmantsev’s initiative — at least until the war is over. At the time of publication, it had collected 17,500 votes out of the 25,000 required.

«It seems that such an anti-competitive «policy» in relation to small and medium-sized businesses in the field of electronic communications has another goal, in particular, the takeover of this business or its destruction and, as a result, depriving consumers of affordable and high-quality Internet access services», — the petition states.

A week ago, MPs failed to pass a draft law on tax increases, lacking two votes. The latest version of the document envisages raising the military tax rate to 5%, setting the military tax at 1% of income for individual entrepreneurs (single tax payers of group III) and setting the military tax for individual entrepreneurs (single tax payers of groups I, II and IV) at 10% of the minimum wage. Among other things, it was proposed to set corporate income tax rates for non-bank financial institutions (except for insurers) at 25%.