diff --git a/.github/workflows/deploy_release.yml b/.github/workflows/deploy_release.yml
index c3f8789..85c4815 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/deploy_release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/deploy_release.yml
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ jobs:
         TAG_REF=(${GITHUB_REF//\// })
         TAG_REF=`echo "${TAG_REF[2]}" | tr -d '[:space:]'`
 
-        SETUP_PY_VERSION=`grep "version=" setup.py | cut -d '"' -f2 | tr -d '[:space:]'`
+        SETUP_PY_VERSION=`cat VERSION`
 
         if [ "$SETUP_PY_VERSION" != "$TAG_REF" ]; then
             echo "ERROR: setup.py contains version '$SETUP_PY_VERSION' which differs from '$TAG_REF'"