OREANDA-NEWS. November 06, 2015. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decided to reduce the number of state tax inspections twofold from 311 to 161. Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced at the Government meeting.

"By the end of year we plan to reduce both inspections and personnel. That is, the number of inspectors, customs officers and other employees of the State Fiscal Service," he stressed.

Besides, the staff of the State Fiscal Service will be cut by 17 thousand.

At the session of the Government there was presented a reform of the State Fiscal Service, which had been designed personally by the Minister of Finance of Ukraine together with the SFS chairman and supported by Western partners.

The SFS shall now recruit staff on a competitive basis. Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed the need to raise salaries for the new employees. According to him, it would allow to overcome corruption and improve competence of the agency. The Prime Minister informed that he had appealed to the European Commission with a request to support “creating a fund aimed to increase salaries for civil servants".

Moreover, he stressed that among major reforms in the tax sphere is upgrading tax administration. The Head of Government explained it envisages cutting contacts with the tax authorities, simplified reporting process and getting rid of a direct impact on entrepreneur by the State Fiscal Service.

In addition, as part of the retrofitting of the SFS there is an objective to conduct an experiment in the customs and transfer the customs to be managed by efficient western companies that had relevant experience.