Government begins to reboot Customs Service – Svyrydenko

The Cabinet of Ministers has begun to reboot the State Customs Service. Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko announced this on the Telegram channel, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

"Today, at a meeting of the Government, we began the process of an open competition for the position of the head of the State Customs Service of Ukraine. This is an important stage in rebooting the customs service, which should become an effective and transparent body operating according to European standards," she said.

Svyrydenko said that the competition commission included representatives of Ukrainian business and international experts in anti-corruption and customs.

From Ukraine:

Andrii Yerashov - head of the analytical center of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs (UUE);

Dmytro Oliinyk - chairman of the Council of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine;

Oleh Tymkiv - director of business development of the Moore Stephens auditing firm.

From international partners:

Arunas Adomenas — Customs Attaché of Lithuania to the EU, expert on customs policy and international cooperation;

David Bernstein — expert on governance and institutional reforms;

Kunio Mikuriya — international expert on customs policy, trade facilitation and organizational leadership.

Also, Svyrydenko reported that the government has approved a medium-term action plan for the implementation of customs reform — this is one of the key areas in the National Revenue Strategy until 2030.

"The reformed customs should establish equal rules for all economic participants and become a source of stable revenues to the state budget," she noted.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on August 1, Svyrydenko reported that she instructed Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko to submit for consideration at the next government meeting a decision on the formation of a competition commission to select the head of the State Customs Service.

In November 2020 - November 2021, the head of the State Customs Service was Pavlo Riabikin, after him, the duties of the head of the State Customs Service were performed by one of the deputy heads of the State Customs Service, from February 2023, the duties of the head of the State Customs Service were performed by the deputy head of the service, Serhii Zviahyntsev.

In September 2024, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law on the reboot of customs, in particular, a transparent competition for the position of head of the State Customs Service with the involvement of international experts.

In December 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers of Denys Shmyhal appointed the head of JSC Ukrposhta Ihor Smilianskyi as the government commissioner for the reform of customs authorities (on a voluntary basis).