TIU Canada (Ekotechnik Nikopol) dismantled the equipment of its solar power plant in Nikopol due to an unresolved conflict with Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NFP), according to a material on the Voice of America website.
According to Michael Yurkovich, CEO of TIU Canada, after the solar power plant was disconnected from the power grid in March 2020, followed by its downtime and a number of negative court decisions, the owners of NFP offered to sell the plant to them for a pittance, after which it was decided to dismantle it.
“This situation is not unique for the last two years in this country. The governments of the world, other overseas investors, people in the diaspora must admit that this situation does not only affect TIU – it affects many businesses and is getting worse, and we no longer want to play this game,” he said.
As reported, on March 2, 2020, NFP completely disconnected a 10.5 MW solar power plant from Ekotechnik Nikopol LLC (TIU Canada) from the power grid. TIU Canada noted that NFP took advantage of the fact that the SPP was connected to a substation located on its territory, and explained the need for shutdown by repair work.
TIU Canada has been operating in Ukraine since 2016. The company put into operation a 10.5 MW SPP in Nikopol in January 2018, and an 11 MW SPP in Mykolaiv region in April 2019. In addition, TIU Canada launched a 33 MW SPP in Odesa region. The company’s investments in solar energy, which became the first investor in Ukraine under the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Area Agreement (CUFTA), amounted to over $65 million.
Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant is controlled by EastOne Group, established in autumn 2007 as a result of restructuring of Interpipe Group, and Privat Group, both based in Dnipro.
State PrivatBank (Kyiv) from December 24 began paying the next tranche in the amount of EUR9 million to victims of the Holocaust, in particular to former concentration camp prisoners and survivors of the German occupation, PrivatBank said on Tuesday.
According to the message, funds can be received in cash at any bank branch in cities and regions of Ukraine.
The press service recalled that PrivatBank has been making such payments since 2014 and is the only agent bank authorized by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany to pay compensation to victims of Nazism on the territory of Ukraine within the framework of the Claims Conference company.
On December 18, 2016, the government of Ukraine, referring to the proposal of the NBU and former shareholders of PrivatBank, the largest of which at that time were Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov, decided to nationalize this largest financial institution on the Ukrainian market and injected over UAH 155 billion into its capital.
According to the statistics of the National Bank of Ukraine, as of October 1, 2021, in terms of total assets, PrivatBank was ranked 1st (UAH 550.328 billion) among 71 banks operating in the country.
The OKKO network in 2021 invested more than UAH 25 million in arranging solar panels at its filling stations, the company’s press service said.
According to its data, thanks to this they were installed at 50 more filling stations of the company, in total there are already 63 such complexes. In particular, in Lviv region – 15, in total in Kyiv region and the capital – 15, in Odesa and Zakarpattia regions – 5 in each.
In 2022, OKKO plans to continue equipping its filling stations with solar panels.
The total design solar capacities of OKKO are currently about 1.4 MW. The volumes of electricity that they are able to generate per year make it possible to save more than 1,000 tonnes of standard fuel from non-renewable sources.
The press service clarifies that the generated electricity is used to cover the filling stations’ own needs in energy resources. In summer months, their capacity is sufficient for a medium-sized filling complex to be able to fully provide itself with its own electricity.
“Our company will continue to actively develop this area. We consider it not only in the context of economic benefits, but also from the point of view of developing alternative sources of energy supply, preserving exhaustible resources, both within the company and in the country as a whole,” Vice President of OKKO for Development and Technical Support Oleksandr Hehedysh said.
Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises are expected to increase steel production by 4% by the end of 2021 compared to 2020 – to 21.444 million tonnes.
According to the documents of the Ministry of Economy, available to Interfax-Ukraine, production of general rolled goods will also increase by 4% – to 19.175 million tonnes, pig iron smelting – also by 4%, to 21.238 million tonnes.
The forecast is based on production indicators for January-November this year, summarized by the Ukrmetalurgprom association, the ministry said.
At the same time, the source added that if the existing trends continue, the supply of scrap metal to metallurgical enterprises in 2021 will increase by 13% – up to 3.264 million tonnes.
Production of pipes in 2021 may increase by 16% – to 990,000 tonnes, coke will decrease by 1%, to 9.541 million tonnes, but production of refractories will increase – by 9%, to 240,000 tonnes.
Sinter output may increase by 4% – up to 33.158 million tonnes.
As reported, over the ten months of this year, the enterprises produced 27.875 million tonnes of sinter (106.1% against January-October 2020), 8.003 million tonnes of 6% moisture coke (at the level of last year), 17.724 million tonnes of pig iron (105%), 17.903 million tonnes of steel (105.5%), 15.986 million tonnes of rolled products (105.4%), and 820,000 tonnes of pipe products (115.9%).
A survey of 101 tax experts from the companies that are members of the European Business Association (EBA) in the framework of the Tax Index Survey 2021 showed a slight improvement in the assessment of the situation with taxation – 3.01 points with a maximum of 5 compared to 2.9 points in the previous wave of the survey, which covers the second and third quarters of 2020.
“For the first time in the decade-long Index history, its integrated value has reached the neutral plane with 3.01 points out of 5 possible. In the previous period, the tax index amounted to 2.90 points,” the report says.
“The increased integrated value is largely due to a significant improvement in the fiscal pressure evaluation as one of the index components. Survey participants rated the situation regarding fiscal pressure at 3.63 points out of 5 possible. Thus, the number of respondents who did not notice any displays of pressure on their company has doubled compared to last year and amounted to 36% in 2021. Another 14% reported that fiscal pressure was almost absent,” it reads.
“The number of respondents who reported significant displays of pressure also decreased slightly to 19% (32% in the previous period). In this regard, businesses experienced most often the unreasoned interpretation of tax legislation by regulatory bodies and baseless information requests,” according to the document.
“On the other hand, the quality of tax legislation received the lowest score among the index components with a slight decrease compared to last year – 2.71 points out of 5 possible. The tax administration and tax reporting were also given moderate evaluations. Only 12% of respondents consider this procedure easy. Another 28% believe that it is complex, although the majority of respondents, namely 64%, rate it satisfactorily,” it says.
“The main negative factor to the easiness of tax administration and reporting is the rapid implementation of new rules and lack of time for adaptation as reported by the business. Although previously the factors of the amount of time spent on taxes and the number of payments prevailed,” the release says.
“I would like to note that the survey was conducted on the eve of the mass blockade of VAT invoices in December, so the Tax Index does not reflect the full picture for 2021. In particular, companies have begun to actively seek help and support in unblocking VAT invoices, and also, we have all witnessed several high-profile tax decisions based on the results of inspections. So, we would like to point out that despite the general improvement in the situation with fiscal pressure, business is still facing blatant abuses from the tax service at the end of the year,” Svitlana Mykhailovska, the EBA Deputy Director for Advocacy, said.
“The number of respondents who believe that the current tax regime has contributed to the development of their business remains dramatically low. These are only 6% (7% last year). As for the tax areas that need improvement, the experts put personal income tax as the first priority, then corporate income tax, and finally the value-added tax,” the report says.
Creative States flexible workspace network plans to open a new location in the Capital Towers shopping and office center under construction in Kyiv by the end of 2022, founder & CEO of Creative States Ilia Kenigshtein said on Facebook.
According to him, the area of the new facility will be 5,500 square meters. The three floors of the office will house an event hall, meeting rooms, children’s areas, office premises, business suites, and a garden on the terrace.
“This is not our only new creative space in Kyiv, we will soon come out with announcements for one more, when we finalize the terms and conditions,” Kenigshtein said.
According to him, the company intends to enter the market of Kharkiv and Odesa in 2022, as well as expand the first location in Dnipro and open the second. In addition, it is planned to launch a location in Podil district in Kyiv.
Creative States markets itself as a premium, flexible workspace network with a full range of operational services. Today, the network includes three locations in Kyiv: in the Senator business center, the Gulliver business center, the Creative States of Arsenal, and also in the Creative State of Dnipro in Dnipro. It is planned to open the second location on the territory of the former Arsenal plant in Kyiv by the end of 2021.
