Finance Ministry delays next VAT bond tranche to end of August

The Finance Ministry pushed back the issuance of the second tranche of special UAH sovereign bonds to cover VAT arrears to corporate exporters back to the last week of August, Finance Minister Fedor Yaroshenko said at a press conference yesterday. First Deputy Finance Minister Vadim Kopylov said last week the volume of this tranche could exceed UAH 10 bln (USD 1.3 bln). The first tranche, UAH 48.5 mln, was issued on August 2. Deputy Prime Minister Sergiy Tigipko said in mid-July the total volume of VAT bonds would be UAH 16.4 bln (USD 2.1 bln). For more details on the VAT bond issue, see our flash note of July 7.