Project “Effective Public Finance Management III” implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on a behalf of the Government of Germany, in connection with request of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, held the first online workshop (from a series of seminars) on the topic: “Taxation system of excisable products in the European Union and its implementation in national law in the taxation of energy products, electricity, ethyl alcohol, alcohol beverages and tobacco products” on 01 – 03.12.2020.
German public finance experts shared their experience with Ukrainian civil servants responsible for taxation of excisable goods and implementation of relevant EU rules in the national legislation of Ukraine, in particular with representatives of:
- State Tax Service of Ukraine;
- Ministry of Finance of Ukraine;
- Secretariat of Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy;
- Research Institute of Fiscal Policy, University of the SFS of Ukraine.
Seminar was conducted by experienced German experts in excise taxation and customs control – Mr. Friedrich Seewald and Mr. Dennis Nering, who presented relevant experience of the Ministry of Finance of Germany and the General Directorate of Customs of Germany (Bonn) to Ukrainian specialists. This allowed representatives of the state authorities of Ukraine to improve their knowledge in the relevant sphere, which they apply in the framework of adaptation of national tax legislation to legal provisions and the EU directives.
The main focus of event was on the taxation of tobacco products in the European Union, as well as functioning of the traceability system for such products in the EU (Track & Trace System).
In general, during the three days of the online workshop, experts particularly considered the following key blocks:
• Traceability of tobacco products in the European Union (Track & Trace System);
• Legal bases of excise taxation of tobacco products: the EU Directive on the production of tobacco products 2014/40 / EU;
• Implementation of the EU legal framework into the national legislation of Ukraine, specifically consideration of provisions of German law on the production of tobacco products, as well as orders on the production of tobacco products.