Businesses are requesting the government to extend current reservations for an additional two months, according to a statement.

The European Business Association (EBA) has appealed to the government to extend the current reservations for an additional two months and to shift the deadline for updating criticality to April 30.

This is mentioned in an official statement from the EBA.

The Association explained this request by the prolonged recovery of state registries following the cyberattack on December 19 last year. During this period, the systems for reservations and granting companies critical status were non-functional. Additionally, the halt of registries resulted in most government bodies approving their industry and regional criteria with significant delays.

"Due to this, there has been a substantial backlog of applications for such status at the ministry and local government levels. It is evident that by February 28, the state apparatus will not be able to process all applications and grant the corresponding status to all genuinely critical enterprises," the EBA noted. Extending the deadlines to the end of April will prevent overloading the limited capabilities of the current criticality provision system and will support the stable operation of the Ukrainian economy, the Association added.

Furthermore, the EBA believes that a legal gap in the criteria and procedures for granting criticality regarding the submission of tax reports for the 4th quarter of 2024 could lead to a significant number of refusals in granting such status. This pertains to the fact that applications for criticality are submitted in January, while tax reports for the 4th quarter of 2024 are due in the second half of February.

"Accordingly, urgent changes need to be made to the criteria and procedures for granting criticality, specifically allowing the submission of reports for the most recent reporting period for which the deadlines set by the Tax Code have expired, particularly to submit the report for the 3rd quarter of 2024 during January and February 2025," the statement reads.

Background. Earlier, Mind reported that as of December 1, 2024, new criteria for the "criticality" of enterprises and rules for reserving employees are in effect in Ukraine. To obtain the status of "critically important," a company must provide a certificate confirming the absence of tax and ESВ arrears. Another requirement is a salary of no less than 20,000 UAH per month. Companies must update their status by February 28. Until that time, previously issued deferrals for military conscription employees will remain in effect.