Consideration of the Draft Law “On the Administrative Fee”

On 15 December 2025, the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning, designated as the lead committee, held—via videoconference—the fifth meeting of the Working Group tasked with reviewing and preparing for the second reading the Draft Law of Ukraine “On the Administrative Fee” (Reg. No. 4380 of 16 November 2020).

During the meeting, proposals submitted by subjects of the right of legislative initiative were discussed, in particular with regard to:

• – changes to the amounts of the administrative fee;
• – procedures and methods for paying the administrative fee;
• – payment of costs not included in the administrative fee.

The draft law was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by Members of Parliament L. M. Bilozir, H. A. Vatsak, S. A. Minko, O. V. Gereha, and D. V. Liubota.

The following bodies have already provided their conclusions on the draft law:

• – the Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the European Union;
• – the Committee on the Budget;
• – the Committee on Digital Transformation;
• – the Main Scientific and Expert Department of the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

The Draft Law of Ukraine “On the Administrative Fee” was developed with the aim of streamlining relations in the field of fees for administrative services, ensuring transparency of such relations, and supporting the sustainable and high-quality provision of administrative services through justified (reasonable) amounts of the administrative fee.

The problem requiring resolution has two dimensions: one for the state and local self-government bodies, and the other for consumers of administrative services—namely, citizens and business entities.

For the state and local self-government bodies, fees for administrative services are insufficiently compensatory. This is particularly true for local self-government bodies, which bear the primary burden of providing administrative services, including in the exercise of delegated powers, as well as establishing and maintaining Administrative Service Centres (ASCs). The main reason for this problem is that most administrative services are subject to inadequately compensatory fees (e.g., UAH 13.60 for residence registration), negligible fees (e.g., state duty of UAH 0.85 for marriage registration; “local notary” fees of UAH 0.17 and UAH 0.34, etc.), or are provided free of charge to consumers altogether (business registration, land registration, etc.). This issue has become particularly acute in the context of the administrative-territorial reform and the consolidation of communities and districts.

For citizens and business entities, the problem lies in the lack of transparency in fees for administrative services, which creates opportunities for abuse in this area. Regulatory acts still use different terms for payments that effectively constitute fees for administrative services (“state duty,” “licensing fee,” “charge,” etc.), and determine fee amounts in different ways (in subsistence minimums, non-taxable minimums, minimum wages, percentage terms, etc.). At the same time, the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On State Duty” has not been revised since 1993, and the proposed draft law is largely intended to replace this regulatory act.

Often, the fee for a single administrative service consists of several components established by different regulatory acts (for example, in the passport sphere), where clarity and transparency are particularly lacking. As a result of such legislative disorder and certain departmental interests, dubious payments continue to be charged to citizens in some areas. For instance, the state enterprise “Document” charges UAH 400 per person for passport services, while the pilot project “Marriage in One Day” allows the collection from citizens in Kyiv of between UAH 6,000 and UAH 13,000 for this administrative service. At the same time, only UAH 0.85 in state duty is transferred to the local budget.

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