By KYIV. Nov 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Verkhovna Rada has facilitates the procedure of importing to Ukraine, accounting, and distribution of humanitarian aid.
Respective bill No. 9111 amending the laws On Humanitarian Aid and On Charitable Activities and Charitable Organizations was backed by 268 members of parliament at a plenary session on Wednesday.
As an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reports, this is evidenced by the live streaming of the plenary session by MP Oleksiy Honcharenko, a member of the European Solidarity faction, on the TikTok social network.
The parliament secured at the legislative level the powers of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to establish a simplified procedure for recognizing goods as humanitarian aid (including on the declarative principle), their accounting and registration. Thus, according to the bill, medical products and medicines determined by the Health Ministry shall be recognized as humanitarian aid regardless of the shelf life of the cargo on a declarative basis without the requirement for a special decision to be made by authorized government bodies.
It is envisaged to create legal grounds for expanding the list of recipients and acquirers of humanitarian aid under martial law.
At the same time, the MPs resolved the issue of the legal status of vehicles that are recognized as humanitarian aid. At the same time, vehicles entering Ukraine during the war shall be exempt from taxation. This also applies to vehicles designed to transport more than eight people and persons with disabilities with damage to the musculoskeletal system, which are transferred to social care and healthcare institutions, non-governmental organizations of persons with disabilities, war and labor veterans, the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, as well as institutions, which are part of the Invasport system.
In addition, the bill contains a provision to improve the procedure for providing humanitarian assistance to foreign countries. In accordance with the proposed procedure, the decision to provide humanitarian aid is made by the president of Ukraine. Humanitarian assistance can be provided in kind or in form of money, through the provision of services or work, in particular, the involvement of civil protection forces or disaster medicine services. At the same time, customs clearance and the passage of goods as humanitarian aid to other states are proposed to be carried out by submitting a customs declaration in the form of a single administrative document without the use of non-tariff regulation measures of foreign economic activity.
