The European Investment Bank (EIB) within the framework of the Ukraine Urban Public Transport project is providing Lviv with EUR 12 million loans for the purchase of ten new low-floor trams.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, the relevant agreement between the bank, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the city authorities was signed on September 2.
According to the ministry, another EUR 8.8 million will be additionally financed from the city budget.
Head of the European Investment Bank representative office in Ukraine Jean-Erik DE ZAGON said the EIB loan for new trams in Lviv will contribute to the development of environmentally friendly and sustainable transport. As representatives of the climate-oriented EU bank, they are convinced that a well-functioning tram network can make a significant contribution to reducing the number of cars on roads and thus reducing environmental pollution and mitigating climate change.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy also supported this position.
“We have a clear position – electric transport should dominate. First of all, these are environmental issues, because 30% of all diseases in the world are caused by air quality. And secondly, it is financially profitable. In addition, low-floor trams and trolleybuses manufactured here, in Lviv, contribute to comfortable movement around the city for all its residents, including those with limited mobility,” he said.
Size and weight control on Ukrainian roads can be expanded to include passenger transport, Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy said during a meeting “Safety Matters” on Tuesday, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reports.
“For all, the weighing systems in motion have always been especially for trucks. At the same time, it is clear that there are also irregularities in transportation out of the norm in passenger transportation. Since when more people get on a minibus or bus than the norm allowed by the technical parameters, these are the same risks. It is about the danger to passengers and road users. Therefore, the potential for size and weight control can be expanded from trucks to passenger transportation. And all this should work in a complex, single system,” he said.
According to the minister, this issue will still be finalized by the ministry together with the deputy corps.
In addition, Krykliy added that by the end of 2020, 50 more WIM weighing systems will be installed on national roads, and another 100 systems – by the end of 2021.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has approved some fiscal incentives for the development of electric transport in Ukraine, in particular, VAT and import duty exemption from 2021 until 2028 for equipment and spare parts for own production of electric transport (passenger cars, electric buses, electric trucks and special-purpose vehicles).
Bill No. 3476 amending the Tax Code and bill No. 3477 amending the Customs Code were passed at the first reading by 316 and 308 lawmakers respectively.
The proposed exemption will not apply only to equipment for the production of trolleybuses, because their output has already been established in Ukraine.
In addition, bill No. 3476 proposes to exempt the electrical industry companies selling electric motors for the production of electric vehicles (with the exception of trolleybuses), lithium-ion batteries, chargers, as well as automobile companies selling electric cars of their own production from paying income tax until December 31, 2033.
The bill proposes to extend or expand benefits for importers and buyers of electric vehicles.
It is proposed, in particular, to extend the VAT exemption for import and/or supply of electric cars until December 31, 2025 (currently the benefit is valid until the end of 2022).
A buyer of an electric car before December 31, 2030 is also offered to be exempted from paying the mandatory pension insurance fee, be provided with a tax discount on the payment of personal income tax, but these standards are proposed to be introduced from January 1, 2026.
According to an explanatory note to the bills, there is a sufficient industrial potential of Ukraine in the production of electric vehicles. In particular, there are five bus plants, a truck plant, and the facilities, which produce 300,000 passenger cars at three plants.
However, today the government is stimulating the import of electric vehicles, not their production. In particular, from January 1, 2016, there is no import duty, exemption from VAT is extended until 2022 and the excise rate is set at EUR 1 per 1 kW/h of battery capacity.
“The introduction of preferential taxation increased the import of electric vehicles from 1,706 vehicles in 2016 to 7,542 vehicles in 2019, but used electric vehicles are dominating in the market (93% in 2019),” the authors of the bills said.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES, EQUIPMENT, IMPORTED, PARLIAMENT, PRODUCTION
Traffic in the airspace of Ukraine in August fell by 56.3% compared to August 2019, the press service of the Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise (UkSATSE) has reported.
In general, last month UkSATSE serviced 16,690 flights, of which 2,519 were domestic (a decrease in the number by 15.7% compared to August 2019), 8,249 were international (50.4% less), and 5,922 were transit (68.2% less).
Ukrainian airlines performed 6,373 flights (45.5% less than in August last year), foreign airlines some 10,317 flights (61.1% less).
As reported, traffic in the airspace of Ukraine in July fell by 68.3% compared to July 2019, UkSATSE serviced 12,195 flights.
Participants in the market where used cars from the United States are sold intend to create the Ukrainian Association of Transport, Service and Repair with the aim of participating in making legislative changes in the car market in order to avoid initiatives that create obstacles to buying inexpensive cars and raise their prices.
“We plan to make an influential body that will participate in drafting bills, amendments and additions related to the car industry, in discussions of planned legislative changes that may restrict the sale of cars with the relevant ministries,” Head of the association, co-founder of Columb Trade Pavlo Kazaryan said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
According to lawyer Roman Voloshyn, the main goal of the association is to simplify business activities and opportunities for buyers as much as possible in order to reduce the cost of registration and purchase of such cars.
He said that the need to create an association arose after the car market participants managed to achieve the abolition of the planned ban on imports of cars to Ukraine after a road accident, which a draft government resolution developed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and published on its website contained.
After a public outcry, the government decided to abandon this idea of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the recently published updated text of the resolution on the registration of the vehicle no longer contains “scandalous provisions” prohibiting registrations of cars marked with the recycling label, as well as the need to translate accompanying documents into the state language with an apostille.
Meanwhile, as noted by the co-founder of the association, Volodymyr Kovel, negative changes have occurred since the publication of the resolution (February 2020), in particular, according to the surveys they conducted, about 72% of potential customers refused to buy a car from the United States in order to avoid risk and they overpaid 30% of the cost for the purchase of a car from Georgia and Europe or bought a car in a condition that was not desired.
In addition, he said that taxi services operating hybrids and electric cars received less money from investors for the purchase of cars and the development of the business, large contracts for the supply of spare parts from China, the United States and Germany were canceled due to the risk of closing the business, some companies were closed because customers stopped to sign transactions due to confusion, and dozens of service stations could go bankrupt, as they took large loans for business development.
“When we united to solve the problem, created a petition on the president’s website, which received more than 18,000 votes, many companies joined us, and we were heard by the state, we realized that it was necessary to create an association that would participate in the development of legislative changes, both taking into account the wishes of business and the authorities, that is, to find a compromise,” Kazaryan said.
According to him, the association intends to unite companies selling used cars from the United States, forwarding and brokerage companies, suppliers of spare parts, service stations and local carriers, as well as transport companies and taxi services.
“Any intention to amend the legislation affects the business, the pricing policy, and its entrepreneurs are afraid of such rumors in the market even more than inspections. The association is also needed in order to bring as many market participants to work legally and explain advantages of such work. I want about 85% of companies to work openly in a couple of years,” Voloshyn said.
According to him, after the publication of the draft resolution, the demand for cars from the United States in Ukraine fell due to the fact that people did not understand whether it was worth buying now, how to redo the documents, whether it would be registered.
“After the changes were removed, the percentage of purchases started to grow by 5-10% every day, and we have already reached the average monthly purchases that were before,” he said.
Asked about the impact of the situation with the spread of coronavirus in this country and lockdown restrictions on the business of selling cars (with a recycling label) from the United States, Kovel said that, of course, after the phases of falling prices for cars meant for recycling and the devastation of the market, prices increased, logistics due to temporary quarantine in ports has become more complicated.
“However, now the situation in the United States is leveling off, and prices are returning to the level before the COVID-19 pandemic. That is, there was no big decline in this area, and the expected changes in legislation brought much more losses,” Kovel said.
He recalled that taking into account monthly deliveries of about 10,000 cars from the United States, $327.8 million annually comes to the budget, and the total volume of the market of cars from the United States, taking into account all related services, is $836.64 million.
He named the Volkswagen Jetta and Passat cars assembled in Mexico, as well as the Ford Focus and Fusion cars the most popular.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Foreign Minister of Romania Bogdan Aurescu have agreed to establish a joint working group on cooperation in the energy sector.
“We discussed in detail the ambitious potential projects in the energy sector, primarily those related to electricity, gas and hydrogen. We decided to create a working group on energy issues and look forward to when our colleagues from the ministries of energy of Ukraine and Romania and the involved business companies will start a detailed substantive conversation on the issues that I have mentioned,” Kuleba said at a joint press conference with Aurescu in Bucharest.
He also noted that he had discussed with his Romanian colleague how to launch the Isaccea-Orlivka ferry service at a maximum capacity.
“I am absolutely sure that we can, we have every opportunity to create and implement ambitious projects that will make Ukraine, Romania, and our region as a whole stronger. It would be an unacceptable mistake not to use the opportunities that we have, primarily in energy and infrastructure sectors. And so today we’ve really discussed how we can launch the Isaccea-Orlivka ferry line at a maximum capacity and eliminate certain problematic issues,” the Ukrainian minister added.
