The Italian group Måneskin has won in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam with 524 votes.
The Ukrainian band Go_A with the song Shum took the fifth place with 364 votes.
The top three also included representative of France Barbara Pravi with the song Voilà, which received 499 votes, and representative of Switzerland, Gjon’s Tears, with the song Tout l’Univers, who scored 432 points.
The European Commission has provided EUR 50 million in grants to support Ukrainian farmers for two years, Deputy Director-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement of the European Commission Katarína Mathernová has said.
She said at the Ukraine 30 Land forum on Monday that the European Commission has allocated EUR 50 million in grants, which will be distributed during two years, to support small farmers to help them acquire land.
The Verkhovna Rada intends to reduce the rate of excise tax on beer to UAH 1.39 per liter from UAH 2.78 per liter for producers whose annual production volume does not exceed 200,000 hectoliters, as well as introduce the term “small beer producers.”
At a plenary session of parliament last week 284 MPs with the required minimum of 226 votes backed bill backed at first reading No. 5118 on amendments to Article 215 of the Tax Code of Ukraine.
According to an explanatory note to the document, there are 204 breweries in Ukraine with an annual production volume of up to 3,000 hectoliters, which pay UAH 30,000 per year for a wholesale beer trade license, and 28 breweries with a production volume of up to 200,000 hectoliters (for their annual license is UAH 500,000).
These companies account for 13% of the beer market in Ukraine, while the remaining 87% is divided among nine large beer producers. According to the document, the total tax burden per 1 liter of beer produced by small producers is significantly higher than the same indicator at the enterprises of the beer giants.
In addition, the authors of the bill said that all small beer producers are under significant regulatory and financial pressure, since they pay other tax payments along with the excise tax. In this regard, the reduction in the excise tax rate is proposed.
The bill will determine the entities of applying the reduced rate by introducing the term “independent small brewery” – an enterprise legally and economically independent from any other brewery, geographically located separately from other breweries.
According to the explanatory note, the bill brings the tax legislation of Ukraine closer to the EU legislation, complies with the EU Council Directive 92/83/EEC on the harmonization of the structures of excise duties on alcohol and alcoholic beverages dated October 19, 1992.
As expected, the implementation of bill No. 5118 will result in a decrease in annual budget revenues by UAH 328.3 million due to a decrease in excise tax rates on beer. At the same time, in the long term, due to the expected growth in beer production by about 20 million liters, the budget will be significantly replenished with tax receipts in the form of excise tax, single social security contribution, personal income tax, etc.
Within the framework of large and small privatization for May-June 2021, more than 100 auctions are planned in Ukraine, said Deputy Head of the President’s Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko.
“At the end of April this year, President Volodymyr Zelensky unlocked large privatization in Ukraine. This is without exaggeration a historic event. Firstly, it will give new life to unprofitable property, and secondly, it will attract billions of dollars in investments. It’s time to turn unprofitable ballast into profit for the Ukrainian budget,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
Tymoshenko said that privatization is now a separate topic of conference calls in the President’s Office.
The next meeting was held on Monday, May 17, with the participation of representatives of the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) and regional state administrations.
“The key thing in our joint work is that large and small privatization in Ukraine is transparent. For the first time in the history of Ukraine, there is a political will for this. The process is already irreversible,” the deputy head of the President’s Office wrote.
He recalled that in 2020 the SPF planned to receive UAH 400 million from privatization. Despite the quarantine, the real income was several times higher – UAH 2.5 billion.
Tymoshenko is convinced that large and small privatization in 2021 opens the way for even larger investments.
At the same time, according to him, the competition is growing. In April 2020, the average number of participants in the auction was 3.67, in April 2021 it was already 4.57.
Bentley Kyiv, the only official dealership of Bentley Motors in Ukraine, plans to sell 63 cars in 2021, while last year it managed to sell 37 cars, Director of the center Oleksiy Kaplaty has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“In the year of the pandemic, when there was a rather difficult situation on the market, this is very indicative. Some markets, for example the European, lost their shares, but we grew and grew very strongly,” he told Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the results of last year on the sidelines of a press conference on Wednesday held on the occasion of the debut of the Ukrainian racer Ivan Peklin at the first stage of the International GT Open.
The director said that this year there are plans to sell 48 new cars and 15 used ones. According to him, the company places great emphasis on working with used cars.
Commenting on the receipt of two awards for the best Bentley Motors dealers in Europe – Best of Sales 2020 and Best of Marketing & Communications 2020 – by Bentley Kyiv in April, Kaplaty said that this is due to a significant excess of the sales target of 30 vehicles.
The head of the dealership said that Bentley Kyiv was actively working on pricing, as a result of which they managed to make prices in the domestic market competitive: the purchase price of a car in Bentley Kyiv will be lower than that of a European dealer with its official import and customs clearance.
“This is the result of the work that we carried out with Bentley, telling about our share, our investments. Investments in this building [the largest dealership in Europe near the Boryspil airport with an area of 1700 sq. m.] is about $5.5 million. Accordingly Bentley has confidence in such partners as the Winner group of companies, Kaplaty said.
As for marketing, he said that success in this category became possible thanks to non-standard events, such as the presentation of the updated Bentley Bentayga at the Kyiv Fortress Museum.
The director of the center added that 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic, made fundamental changes in advertising promotion, but the company was ready for this. “I can confidently say that about 40% of our budgets are focused on digital: promotion in electronic networks, social networks,” he said, pointing out that most of the traditional public events were at risk of failure or were not held.
Speaking about market share, Kaplaty said that the main goal set by Bentley in all regions is to occupy a share of at least 12% in the segment of luxury and premium cars. “As of today, according to the results of the first quarter, we hold a share of about 13%, that is, we are growing and strengthening our position,” the director of Bentley Kyiv said.
When asked about new trends for luxury brands, he said that this year the center will officially unveil two new models with hybrid engines – the Bentley Flying Spur and the Bentley Bentayga. The green and renewable materials trend is at the heart of Bentley’s 2030 strategy, he said.
Winner Group Ukraine has been operating on the Ukrainian market for over 28 years, during this time more than 140,000 cars have been sold and more than 50 dealerships have been opened in Ukraine. In August 2016, an agreement of intent was signed with the Bentley brand in Ukraine. Bentley Kyiv is the only official dealer for the sale and service of Bentley on the territory of Ukraine. The official opening of the Bentley Kyiv dealership took place on July 10, 2019.
Winner Imports Ukraine, a member of the group, is the official importer of Ford, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche and Bentley cars in Ukraine, and in the third quarter of this year it intends to introduce the MG auto brand (property of the Chinese SAIC Motor) to the Ukrainian market.
Ivan Peklin is a 19-year-old pilot from Kyiv who started racing for the Italian Lazarus Team in Bentley Continental GT3 this year.
In his debut race at this year’s first International GT Open on May 15 in France, he took first place with teammate Jordan Pepper from South Africa.
Head of the Naftogaz Group’s Commerce Division and Director General of Naftogaz Trading gas supplying company Willem Coppoolse has decided to leave the company, Naftogaz said in a Friday press release.
Otto Waterlander will be acting Head of the Naftogaz Group’s Commerce Division.
Iryna Zhuravliova has been appointed acting director general of Naftogaz Trading.
