Believers cannot do business without ID number

On 17 March the Verkhovna Rada rejected a draft law to bring in amendments to the law on business activities so as to enable believers to carry out business activities without having an identification number. The draft law did not receive enough votes to be passed as the basis in its first reading, nor was there support for it’s being submitted at first reading stage again.

The issue is of importance for those believers who due to their convictions are not prepared to have an identification number and have officially informed the state authorities of this.  Instead of the ID number, they have a special note added to their internal passport.  The draft law proposed allowing those persons when submitting documents for the founding of a legal entity or their appointment as head to provide information about the number and series of their passport instead of the ID number.

The majority of parliamentarians saw this as problematical and potentially creating difficulties in the tax system with this being unacceptable during a period of economic crisis.