20 October 2016
Metinvest Group’s enterprises annually pay over UAH 300 million of environmental tax annually to the budgets of different levels according to Vladislav Belous, the Head of the Environmental Department of Metinvest Group, who spoke at Green Mind 5th International Forum for Sustainable Development that is taking place on 19-20 October in Kiev.
In Vladislav Belous’s opinion, the environmental tax, in addition to being a motivation driver for the business, could become a resource for environmental transformations. At that, the local communities should be receiving as large share of the payment as possible, and have a right to channel the tax revenues to environmental modernization of the local enterprises. This will allow using the funds efficiently to reduce environmental impact directly, where such impact is occurring.
Vladislav Belous highlighted the tax application areas: “What if the local government authorities want to accelerate the process of achieving stricter environmental requirements? What if we want to see a modern EU-level production in our land already tomorrow? Why cannot we make such a decision and contribute to faster modernization of production?”
The expert thinks that the utilization of the tax revenues for the implementation of target environmental projects of the enterprises would be much more effective vs. the existing principle of the funds distribution.
Green Mind is a business forum aiming at the integration of the environmental component to practical production environment for sustainable development of the companies in various industries. Over 120 experts from 27 countries of the world spoke at the forum. The forum was organized by Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and all-Ukrainian non-government organization Live Planet. Metinvest Group acted as a special partner of the event.