Editor’s note: This is issue 21 of Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak’s weekly "Ukraine Reforms Tracker" covering events from April 7–13, 2025. The digest highlights steps taken in the Ukrainian parliament related to business, economics, and international financial programs.
The Kyiv Independent is republishing with permission.
Benchmarks and soft commitments with the IMF
All candidates advance to next stage in Bureau of Economic Security leadership competition
Following the second stage of the competition to appoint a new director of the Bureau of Economic Security, all 16 remaining candidates successfully passed the legislation knowledge exam and will proceed to the next rounds of evaluation.The upcoming stages, scheduled for April 16 include:
- practical exercises to assess professional skills;
- practical tasks evaluating organizational and leadership qualities;
- personal competency assessments.
An IMF-related deadline to appoint the new bureau head is end-July 2025.
Ukraine moves toward taxing digital platform income under new draft bill
Ukraine’s Finance Ministry is said to be preparing a draft bill that would impose tax obligations on users of digital platforms such as OLX, Prom, and Rozetka.
The proposed legislation would require platforms to annually transmit data on sellers to the State Tax Service (STS).
Additionally, the platforms would become tax agents, responsible for withholding personal income tax (PIT) and military levies from payments made to individual sellers.
According to preliminary information from the STS, new requirements are likely to apply only to systematic sales that exhibit signs of commercial activity, rather than occasional sales of personal used items. However, all details are expected once the bill is formally registered in parliament.
Other key economic issues
Ukraine's parliament expected to extend martial law, review several reform bills next week
Ukraine’s Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, is expected to vote during the April 15–18 plenary week to extend martial law and general mobilization for another 90 days, until Aug. 6, 2025. This will mark the 15th extension of martial law since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
As we reported in Issue 20, lawmakers are preparing to review several bills tied to Ukraine Facility reform commitments, including:
- draft law #12374-d on ARMA reform (second reading);
- draft law #13107 and alternatives on vocational education reform, draft law #5838 strengthening liability for misconduct by state regulatory officials; draft law #13150, recently introduced by David Arakhamia and others, establishing new oversight measures for local government decisions — all in the first reading.
Illicit tobacco market in Ukraine expands to 14.1% in February
The share of illegal tobacco sales in Ukraine rose to 14.1% in February 2025, according to data from Kantar, reversing a previous decline to 12%.
The expansion of the illicit market is estimated to cause at least Hr 24 billion ($620 million) in annual budget losses, highlighting ongoing enforcement challenges.
Tim Zadorozhnyy
