Ukraine amends VAT reimbursement bill for oilseed exports

Обзоры по компаниям и отраслям 22.12.2017 Ukraine's parliament voted on Dec. 21 to change again its Dec. 7 amendments to the tax code that eliminates VAT on the export of sunflower seeds, rapeseed and soybeans. The new bill provides for full reimbursement of VAT on the export of sunflower seeds and a temporary freeze of VAT reimbursement for exporters of soybeans (September 2018-end 2021) and rapeseed (January 2020-end 2021). Recall, lawmakers voted on Dec. 7 to cancel VAT reimbursement of sunflower seeds, rapeseed and soybeans as of March 2018. This initiative drew fierce resistance from farmers, many of whom had already sown winter rapeseed on a total of 0.87 mln ha to be harvested in summer 2018. Alexander Paraschiy: The news is positive for farmers that have been already sown winter rapeseed - like Mriya Agroholding (MRIYA) and KSG Agro (KSG PW). But it’s still not clear why Ukraine needs to introduce a temporary moratorium on export VAT reimbursements for 2018-2021. In any case, limits on exports of rapeseed and soybeans will likely benefit local processors of oil crops, including Kernel (KER PW), Astarta (AST PW) and MHP (MHPC LI). But a positive effect on their value will be minor, in our view.