KIEV, Sept. 28 – Ukraine's government has reduced value-added tax (VAT) refund arrears to UAH 4 billion, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said at a conference entitled "Ukraine: Reforms, Competitiveness, Investments," organized by the Ukrainian Foundation for Effective Governance and The Financial Times.

"As of today, this [the debt] is about UAH 4 billion, and it will go down to about UAH 3 billion as of October 1," he said.

The premier said that the cabinet plans to fully repay delayed VAT refunds by the end of the year and switch to the automatic reimbursement of VAT.