Dozens of officers of regional departments of the State Customs Service of Ukraine have been suspended from work, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a video statement, following a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on Friday.
“Dozens of customs officials have been suspended from work. And we are also preparing legislative changes, which will result in the criminalization of inaccurate customs declaration,” the president said.
He said the reason for such a decision is the losses incurred by the Ukrainian budget due to the ineffective work of customs.
“According to experts, losses due to smuggling reach UAH 300 billion, which the state budget lost. More than 100 billion of them [were lost] due to the ineffective work of customs,” the head of state said.
He said that Ukraine will continue to actively fight against smuggling, as it is “economic terrorism.”
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has changed the date of resolution No.269 on expanding the list of goods prohibited for import into the customs territory of Ukraine, originating from Russia and excluded from it one item, namely, newsprint in rolls or sheets.
Resolution No.269, which had previously disappeared from the government’s website, was re-promulgated on it, but is now dated April 1, together with the original date of March 29.
The document continues to indicate that it will enter into force ten days after publication.
The latest audits of the statements of insurers for the second half of 2020 showed that 46 of them violate the standards, and 15 did not submit financial statements, while for a long time they had difficulties with complying with the mandatory standards, the deputy governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), Yaroslav Matuzka, wrote in the author’s column of the Ekonomichna Pravda edition, according to the website of the central bank.
“We have studied in detail the circumstances of these violations. They are not caused by the increased requirements of the regulator. Most of the violations are deliberate actions of the management of insurance companies related to the withdrawal of eligible assets,” he stressed.
Among the main reasons for the problematic state of the companies, Matuzka named excessive expenses that have no economic justification, the exchange of highly liquid assets – government bonds for the corporate rights of unknown LLCs, which clearly have no corresponding value and will not be sold after that for the same amount. In addition, he named the purchase of incomprehensible securities or the order of services not related to insurance activities, the conclusion of reinsurance contracts, in which the amount of possible payments is less than the amount of insurance premiums paid for such reinsurance.
Another reason for violations is the transfer of funds from insurance reserves as collateral for loans to shareholders, or even those who are clearly not related to the insurer at all. There are a lot of such examples, the banker says.
At the same time, he noted the presence of a separate category of insurers – seekers of quick money.
“Their business models are based on the MLM (multilevel marketing) principle – came, saw, conquered, disappeared. Insurance indemnities in such business models are usually paid from the insurance premiums of new contracts. So to speak, just-in-time,” he said.
In his opinion, this is happening because insurers pursue a rash policy of agency fees in order to enter the market and quickly take a niche, taking it from someone else. First of all, clients suffer from this, who after some time end up with nothing with their insured events, because when the volumes of the insurer fall and it can no longer bear such costs even just-in-time.
State-owned Ukreximbank (Kyiv) has issued UAH 1 billion in loans under the Affordable Loans 5-7-9% program since the start of the program, the bank’s press service said on Wednesday.
“Almost every second loan under the program is aimed at capital investments in expanding the existing business, as well as supporting promising start-ups,” the press service said, citing Head of department of medium business and municipalities Semen Puskai.
It is indicated that half of the total amount of funds under the program are anti-crisis loans at 0% to ensure financing of the working capital of enterprises.
The bank added that refinancing of previously received loans at a reduced interest rate is actively used to reduce the debt burden on business.
The British oil and gas company Enwell Energy plc (formerly Regal Petroleum) with assets in Ukraine in 2020 increased average daily hydrocarbon production by 6.5% compared to 2019, to 4,541 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), the press service of Smart Energy said.
According to the company’s announced production and financial audited results for 2020, its net profit decreased by 3.8 times (by $ 9 million) compared to 2019, to $ 3.2 million, income – by 15.4% (by $ 8.6 million), to $ 47.3 million.
“During the reporting period, the company demonstrated strong financial performance despite the fact that the growth in gas production was offset by a significant decline in gas prices during the year,” the press release says.
The company also notes that despite gas prices, cash flow from operating activities in 2020 remained approximately at the same level as in the previous year – $ 23.8 million against $ 24.7 million.
Pozniaky-Zhyl-Bud (Kyiv) in 2020 saw a net loss of UAH 21.304 million, which is 20% lower than the result of 2019 (UAH 17.631 million loss), follows from the agenda of a shareholders’ meeting scheduled for April 29, 2021, promulgated in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine.
The uncovered loss of the company over the year reached UAH 17.044 million against UAH 4.260 million of retained earnings for the previous year.
Current liabilities increased by 3.4 times, to UAH 855.882 million, while long-term liabilities decreased to UAH 443.352 million from UAH 664.757 million.
In addition, it is reported that by December 31, 2020, the company’s assets increased by 44%, to UAH 1.368 billion, while cash and its equivalent almost halved, to UAH 3.626 million. The total debtor indebtedness increased by 1.5 times, to UAH 331.8 million.
The net worth of Pozniaky-Zhyl-Bud in 2020 was negative, minus UAH 16.869 million.
