Thanks to the dialogue between the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations and members of the inter-factional parliamentary association "Values. Dignity. Family" the Parliament postponed consideration of the draft law No. 2713-D on reducing tax rates for gambling organizers.
This is reported by the Institute for Religious Freedom.
The next meeting of the AUCCRO and parliamentarians took place on December 15, 2021 – on the eve of the planned vote, which was postponed.
"We welcome the decision of the Verkhovna Rada to postpone consideration of draft law No. 2713-D. We hope that this legislative initiative, which is harmful to Ukrainian society, will be completely withdrawn from consideration or rejected because the state should not promote gambling addiction. When the gambling business was proposed to be legalized in Ukraine, the condition was the maximum tax rates. Therefore, the AUCCRO will continue to insist that the state does not encourage gambling with benefits, but takes care of the moral health and financial well-being of our fellow citizens," said Hryhory Komandant, chairman of the AUCCRO and president of the UBS.
This position of the AUCCRO was supported by the co-chairman of the inter-faction association "Values. Dignity. Family" MP Svyatoslav Yurash:
"Representatives of Churches are familiar with the problem of gambling and insist on the impossibility of underestimating the entry-level for licenses of this business. This is a dangerous element for the mental health of society, which should be under the control of the state."
The religious figures also thanked the Parliamentarians for supporting the position of the AUCCRO on the need to cancel the decision to finance the film project "My Young Prince" at the expense of taxpayers as such, which violates the requirements of Article 2 of the law of Ukraine "On Protection of Public Morals", in particular, promotes homosexual relations, blasphemy and disrespect for religious shrines, and thereby excites society and provokes protests.