The Kyivstar mobile operator since February 2022 has upgraded 3,000 base stations in small towns and villages with a population of up to 2,000 people by connecting LTE-900 technology to them, the company’s press service reported on Monday.
“Thanks to this, the network capacity has been increased and the quality of 4G has been improved in 3,500 settlements in 19 regions of Ukraine. Among them are Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy and other regions of Ukraine where no active hostilities are taking place,” the statement said.
The operator notes that also in 2022, some 140 new base stations were built. And to improve the quality of communication in regions of intensive data traffic, the development of frequencies in the 2300 MHz range, received from the state for the period of wartime in the country, began.
According to Kyivstar, since the beginning of the war, almost 5 million of the company’s subscribers have moved from large cities to small towns within their region, and another 4 million have moved from other regions to the western regions of Ukraine. In this regard, the operator increases the network capacity and improves the quality of radio coverage in places where Internet traffic is growing.
“Since the outbreak of hostilities, the telecom operator’s specialists have eliminated thousands of emergencies that arose as a result of damage to the telecommunications infrastructure, replaced almost 30,000 meters of destroyed fiber-optic lines, carried out 3,500 repairs on cell towers. More than 90% of the telecom infrastructure is operating normally, providing communications and high-speed Internet for the needs of subscribers, the public sector and private companies,” the company said.
Das Financial Stability Board (FSB), dem insbesondere die Führung der Nationalbank und des Finanzministeriums der Ukraine angehören, schlägt vor, die bevorzugte Besteuerung von Kraftstoffen aufzugeben. Laut dem Pressedienst der NBU auf der Website vom Montag wird eine Erhöhung der Einfuhrsteuern, insbesondere der Verbrauchsteuern auf Kraftstoff, als eine der Möglichkeiten zur weiteren Steigerung der Haushaltseinnahmen vorgeschlagen.
„Nach den Ergebnissen von Januar bis Mai 2022 war das Staatshaushaltsdefizit größer als für das gesamte Jahr 2021 und 2020. Die Haushaltseinnahmen gingen zurück, auch aufgrund der Vorzugsbesteuerung von Importen, während gleichzeitig die Ausgaben vor allem erheblich anstiegen für militärische Zwecke und soziale Programme”, sagte die NBU in einer Erklärung.
Wie berichtet, einigte sich das FSB am 23. Juni auf zentrale Aktionsbereiche, um das Staatshaushaltsdefizit zu verringern und das Volumen seiner monetären Finanzierung zu reduzieren: Optimierung der Staatsausgaben und des Einnahmenwachstums, Aktivierung der Kreditaufnahme auf dem Inlandsmarkt und Erhöhung der Vorhersehbarkeit der internationalen Hilfe .
Ende März verabschiedete die Rada Änderungen der Abgabenordnung, wonach sie die Verbrauchssteuer auf die Lieferung von Benzin und Flüssiggas abschaffte und die Mehrwertsteuer auf die Einfuhr von Motorkraftstoff auf 7 % senkte.
Anschließend wurde der Rada ein Gesetzentwurf vorgelegt, der die Ablehnung dieser Leistungen vorsah, jedoch wurden diese Normen noch vor ihrer Einführung in die Halle davon ausgenommen, da sie eine noch stärkere Erhöhung der Kraftstoffpreise befürchten ließen. Infolgedessen werden ab dem 1. Juli die Einfuhrprivilegien für die meisten Waren gestrichen, für Kraftstoffe bleiben sie jedoch erhalten.
Die Nationalbank der Ukraine schlägt der Regierung und der Rada außerdem vor, einen zusätzlichen Einfuhrzoll von 10 % einzuführen, ähnlich dem von 2014-2015, um den Druck auf die Griwna zu verringern und den Staatshaushalt aufzufüllen. Die Regierung und der Profilausschuss haben sich jedoch bisher geweigert, eine solche Maßnahme anzuwenden.
The Financial Stability Board (FSB), which includes, in particular, the leadership of the National Bank and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, proposes to abandon the preferential taxation of motor fuel. According to the press service of the NBU on the website on Monday, an increase in taxes on imports, in particular excises on fuel, is proposed as one of the ways to further increase budget revenues.
“According to the results of January-May 2022, the state budget deficit was larger than for the whole year of 2021 and 2020. Budget revenues decreased, including due to preferential taxation of imports, while at the same time, spending increased significantly, primarily for military needs and social programs,” the NBU said in a statement.
As reported, on June 23, the FSB agreed on key areas of action to narrow the state budget deficit and reduce the volume of its monetary financing: optimization of government spending and revenue growth, activation of domestic market borrowing and increasing the predictability of international aid.
At the end of March, the Rada adopted amendments to the Tax Code, according to which it canceled the excise tax on the supply of gasoline and liquefied gas and reduced VAT on the import of motor fuel to 7%.
Subsequently, a draft law was submitted to the Rada that provided for the rejection of these benefits, but these norms were excluded from it even before they were introduced to the hall, as they caused fears of an even greater increase in the price of fuel. As a result, from July 1, import privileges for most goods will be canceled, but they will remain for motor fuel.
The National Bank of Ukraine is also proposing to the government and the Rada to introduce a 10% additional import duty, similar to the one that existed in 2014-2015, to ease pressure on the hryvnia and replenish the state budget. However, the government and the profile committee have so far refused to apply such a measure.
The National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMRC) has added seven more cases to the list of unreliable investment projects and recommends that investors take this information into account in their activities.
As stated in the message of the regulator on Monday, we are talking about AmberFX, BB TEAM PRO, ConcordInvest, Safe Invest, FBS, Barclay Stone LTD and Enterprise London Limited.
“We urge citizens to be prudent and carefully assess the risks before investing their funds,” the Commission said.
The full list of projects now includes 123 items.
Ukraine has received an additional 65 billion Japanese yen (approximately $500 million) in a soft loan under a loan agreement signed by Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko and Japan International Cooperation Agency JICA President Akihiko Tanako.
The loan was granted on preferential terms: the loan repayment period is 30 years, including a grace period of 10 years; the interest rate is 1% per annum, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday.
The funds were sent to the state budget to finance priority social and humanitarian expenditures, health care, the ministry specified.
The Ministry of Finance recalled that on June 7, the governments of Ukraine and Japan signed an additional agreement on a JICA loan for a development policy in the field of emergency economic recovery. The agreement increased the loan amount by 65 billion Japanese yen, bringing the loan amount to 78 billion Japanese yen (about US$600 million).
Ukraine received the first 13 billion Japanese yen (about $100 million) under the said agreement on May 24.
The Ministry of Finance expected that in June the volume of external financing will increase to $4.8 billion compared to $1.5 billion in May, but before this Japanese loan since the beginning of the month it has so far amounted to only about $1.5 billion.
The price of wheat in Ukraine on EXW terms (self-delivery) has reached its minimum values for the month, having decreased by 31.1% over the period from May 23 to June 27 – to UAH 4,500/ton from UAH 5,900/ton, according to an infographic on the website of the consulting agency “Ukragroconsult” on Monday.
Over the same period, the cost of EXW corn decreased by 17.4% – to 4750 UAH/ton from 5750 UAH/ton, and barley – by 29.7% – to 4500 UAH/ton from 6400 UAH/ton.
At the same time, the main drop in prices for grain within the country occurred over the past week: for the period June 20-27, wheat fell in price by 24.4% (from 5600 UAH/ton on June 20), corn – by 15.1% (from 5600 UAH/ton ), barley – by 30.7% (from 6500 UAH / ton).
As reported with reference to the data of the electronic grain exchange GrainTrade, the purchase prices for wheat in Ukraine fell to 5500-6500 UAH / ton with delivery to the mill against the backdrop of blocking the country’s seaports by Russian warships. Additionally, the price reduction was influenced by the introduction of export licensing in March, the abolition of which in July 2022 was announced the day before by First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy Taras Vysotsky.
According to the exchange, in anticipation of the harvest of the new crop, agricultural producers are trying to free up granaries, so they are activating wheat sales, thereby increasing pressure on prices for it. Thus, the abolition of licenses will revive exports and stabilize wheat prices.
