Ukrainian non-governmental organizations which advocate Russian policy may be stripped of the right to have tax exemptions, the Russian newspaper Izvestia reported.
The bill is directed against NGOs which show support for Russia, recently labeled an "aggressor state" by the Ukrainian Parliament in early 2015, or justify Russia’s policy.
The bill was initiated by Igor Lutsenko, a Verkhovna Rada lawmaker from the Batkivshchyna party. He proposed excluding such organizations from the NGO registry. Thus, an excluded organization would have to become commercial to continue its activities.
According to the Ukrainian tax code, political parties, non-governmental organizations, religious and charity funds, housing cooperatives and pension funds are exempt from profit taxes.
Besides profit taxes, the lawmaker proposed imposing an additional tax burden on organizations which support Russia. Additionally, pro-Russian organizations would have to pay land taxes which Ukrainian NGOs and non-profit organizations are currently free of, according to the national tax code.
In the last year, Ukrainian public organizations were already affected by the government’s policy against pluralism and freedom of speech, in the case of the Ukrainian Communist Party. The Ukrainian Security Service has repeatedly summoned its leader for questioning over his visits to Russia. Meanwhile, the head of the security service himself publicly labelled the party as "harmful" to Ukraine and called to ban it.
