January budget revenue declines 1.3% yoy, below plan

Ukraine’s state budget revenue declined 1.3% yoy to
UAH 55.2 bln in January, which is 10.8% yoy below plan, the State Treasury
provisionally reported on Feb. 1. Net tax revenue declined 13.7% yoy to UAH
19.9 bln (27.8% below plan) amid a VAT reimbursement surge of 64.2% yoy.
Customs revenue declined 10.4% yoy to UAH 22.5 bln (11.8% below plan). Other
budget revenue increased 15.5% yoy to UAH 1.3 bln (37.7% above plan).

Local fiscal revenue improved 20.8% yoy to UAH 19.0
bln, but underperformed plan by 5.6%. Social payments (pension and other social
fund contributions paid by employers) advanced 26.1% yoy to UAH 19.1 bln.

Evgeniya Akhtyrko: The government improved its VAT reimbursement in January after underpayments in December. As for customs collections, uneven month-to-month
revenue is a usual event reflecting the Ukrainian practice of “manual”
management, as well as high corruption in this realm. So the poor customs performance in January is likely to be compensated by a
better “performance” the next month.