The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine plans to exempt air carriers from taxation on internal flights, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“In order to enhance travel within the country, we plan to exempt air carriers from taxation on such routes. This step will reduce the costs of companies and cut the cost of air tickets for internal flights. Ukrainians, for their part, will have greater access to fast travel around the country,” Shmyhal said on Facebook on Sunday, April 25.
According to him, for this it is necessary to amend the current legislation. “I have already set this task for the ministries,” the head of government said.
The prime minister said the government also discussed the issue of intensifying cooperation in the tourism sector with Turkey. “We set a goal not only to expand sea and air traffic in order to open new and convenient routes for Ukrainians, but also to encourage Turkish citizens to come to Ukraine for family vacations,” Shmyhal said.
The European Union (EU) has invested EUR 1 billion in vaccine research and EUR 2.9 billion in expanding production capacity, the press service of the German Embassy in Kyiv said. “The study now needs support to protect the world from new strains of viruses. At the same time, Germany is also helping within the EU. The EU has already invested EUR 1 billion in vaccine research and EUR 2.9 billion in expanding production capacity,” the message reads.
The press service noted that the rapid development of vaccines against COVID-19 became possible thanks to international scientific cooperation.
“One example is the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, which was the first to be registered in the EU. The German married couple of researchers Ozlem Tureci and Professor Ugur Sahin and their team developed a vaccine in Germany in a very short time with funding from the federal government,” the press service said.
Enterprises and organizations of Ukraine in 2020 reduced their pretax profit from ordinary activities by 41%, to UAH 264.4 billion (in 2019 it was UAH 446.9 billion), the State Statistics Service has reported.
According to the State Statistics Service, last year Ukrainian enterprises that worked profitably received UAH 602.3 billion in profit, which is 2.9% less than in 2019.
At the same time, 29.2% of enterprises saw losses. Their losses in 2020 grew by 94.6% compared to 2019, to UAH 337.9 billion.
FOREIGN TRADE TURNOVER BY THE MOST IMPORTANT POSITIONS IN JAN 2021 (IMPORT)
Bogdan Corporation, in a consortium with Czech company Tram For Envi, will supply six new autonomous trolleybuses for the transport company in Jihlava (the Czech Republic) following a tender in which the consortium was declared the winner almost a year ago, the corporation said on its Facebook page on Saturday with reference to the Czech media.
“For the first time, the Ukrainian manufacturer has managed to penetrate the Czech market with new trolleybuses. The signing of the contract can be seen from the data in the register of contracts. The contract was signed almost a year after the transport company Jihlava had declared the association the winner. The purchase will be financed through a European subsidy,” the Czech ezine Zdopravy.cz quoted Bogdan corporation as saying.
According to the contract, the Bogdan T70120 trolleybuses must be adapted to the requirements of the Czech market, in particular, the electrical equipment for them must be supplied by the Czech company Cegelec. The delivery time is estimated at 14 months.
The Czech newspaper notes that before that, for many years, only Škoda Electric had won contracts for the supply of trolleybuses, and the arrival of other manufacturers began to lead to significant price reductions.
As reported, in May 2020, a tender proposal of Bogdan Corporation in a consortium with Czech TRAM FOR ENVI s.r.o. was declared the best in a tender to supply six trolleybuses fitted with traction batteries for autonomous running for a transport company of Jihlava (the Czech Republic). The Czech-Ukrainian consortium offered trolleybuses for CZK 71.4 million (about EUR 2.64 million) or CZK 11.9 million for one trolleybus (EUR 440,300) with an estimated purchase amount of being CZK 82.74 million (EUR 3.06 million).
At the same time, Škoda Electric, which participated in the tender, offered a price of CZK 82.17 million (EUR 3.04 million) or CZK 13.695 million for a trolleybus.
The public and guaranteed debt of Ukraine after growth last year from 50.3% of GDP to 60.8% of GDP in 2021 will decrease to 55.8% of GDP, this updated forecast is contained in the inflation report of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
“Compliance with a balanced fiscal policy in the context of economic growth and low exchange rate volatility will allow to resume the decline in the level of government and government-guaranteed debt, as well as keep it below 60% of GDP,” the NBU said.
According to its estimates, in the first two months of 2021, the debt has already decreased to 58.4% of GDP, amounting to UAH 2.55 trillion in absolute terms (36.5% in national currency and 63.5% in foreign currency).
The National Bank said that in 2021 the government will still maintain a significant budget deficit (according to NBU estimates 4% of GDP, UAH 200.2 billion) to revive the economy and overcome the pandemic.
“However, in the future, in the context of sustainable economic growth, government incentives will decrease, which will gradually improve the debt position. Accordingly, in 2022-2023, the deficit is expected to decrease to 3% of GDP (UAH 165 billion in 2022 and UAH 181.9 billion in 2023),” the bank said in the report.
According to it, the National Bank does not expect financing of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy and additional capitalization of state-owned banks in the next three years. The volume of government guarantees, according to its estimates, will decrease from UAH 80 billion in 2021 to UAH 34.4 billion in 2022 and UAH 36.8 billion in 2023.
