Tiraspol, 22 March. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. President Yevgeny Shevchuk held a meeting with Prime Minister Pavel Prokudin and Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources Svetlana Timotina. The current situation in the agricultural sector was discussed at the meeting, the presidential press office reports.
Special attention was given to support measures for domestic agricultural producers. The President emphasized the importance of the availability of domestic food products in the Pridnestrovian market.
He said that with regard to unfavourable conditions of the last agricultural period — drought in some districts of the country and the general lack of working capital — he had received a letter from agricultural producers. In particular, they petitioned for the temporary expansion of the categories of business entities having the right to adopt a fixed agricultural tax. The president instructed the agricultural ministry to consider the implementation of these proposals in 2016−2017 with a number of mandatory guidelines. Among them, for instance, are the effective use of agricultural lands, current tax payments, development of new agricultural businesses.
The fixed agricultural tax was introduced in 2004 as an interim support measure for agricultural enterprises, replacing the single social tax, land tax and housing maintenance tax. The fixed tax has been in effect since 2015 for newly formed legal entities and those who had not enjoyed this tax benefit before. This tax provides for a tax burden reduction and a simplified reporting system.
The prime minister proposed to review the procedure of paying ecological fees for businesspersons and simplify the reporting on payments to the Ecological Fund. The president approved of this initiative and instructed him to draft the corresponding law.
The agricultural minister, Svetlana Timotina, told the president that a case of African swine fever had been detected in Ukraine's Odessa region on 18 March. «Upon the detection of this disease in the country, a quarantine must be introduced and the whole pig population is to be eliminated," the agricultural minister informed the president on possible implications.
The head of state instructed that control should be strengthened at border crossing points to prevent ASF emergence in Pridnestrovie.
It should be recalled that last October the government introduced restrictions for the importation of some meat products to Pridnestrovie from Ukraine. «We will work out amendments to a draft decree which will not only toughen up restrictions for the import of raw meat, but also meat products in general," noted Svetlana Timotina.
