Auditors of the State Fiscal Service (SFS) of Ukraine carried out 16,600 surprise checks of the facilities with the largest risks of tax evasion in 2017, the service’s official newspaper SFS Visnyk reported on its website. According to the report, special attention was paid to the VAT payment schemes. A large number of tax evasion schemes were discovered in the highest risk sector – the sales of agricultural products, the service said.
In addition, the checks revealed invalid transactions for the purchase of goods or services that were not produced or provided in the amount indicated in source documents and/or it was impossible to supply these goods or services due to the lack of resources for their production, storage and transportation by the supplier; absence of source documents, accounting registries, financial statements and documents related to the calculation and payment of taxes and fees, which are required by law.
All in all, these inspections exposed 6,200 beneficiaries, UAH 14.8 billion of VAT paid under fraudulent schemed, including UAH 2.6 billion of VAT from risky importers.
According to the inspection results, additional UAH 16,200 billion are expected to be sent to the state budget, of which UAH 8.1 billion were agreed (UAH 1.3 billion of which have already been paid).
In March 2018, Kyiv International Airport named after Igor Sikorsky served 155,700 passengers, which was 56.6% more than in March 2017.
The number of passengers served on international routes was 149,400 people, while those who flew on domestic routes numbered 6,300 people.
The number of flights in March 2018 was 1,975 both as arrivals and departures, which was 29.8% more than in the same period in 2017. These included 1,611 international flights and 364 domestic flights.
The most popular international destinations in March 2018 were Dubai (the UAE), Minsk (Belarus), Ankara (Turkey), Warsaw (Poland), Budapest (Hungary), Rome (Italy), and Memmingen (Germany). Odesa, Zaporizhia and Lviv were popular domestic destinations.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has said that Ukraine intends to sign an agreement on a free trade zone (FTA) with Turkey before the end of 2018. “Tomorrow, a delegation headed by the first deputy PM is coming back. We are going to sign an agreement on a free trade zone with Turkey this year,” the head of the government said on the Inter TV channel on Friday. Groysman said that this agreement would positively contribute to the development of the country’s economy.
PJSC Ukrtelecom whose 92.79% stake belongs to LLC ESU, which is controlled by Rinat Akhmetov’s System Capital Management (SCM), will not pay dividends for 2017. “It was decided that the profit the company generated last year will be used to cover losses accumulated over previous periods,” Ukrtelecom’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
In addition, shareholders re-elected the supervisory board together with its head, Leonid Netudykhata, who once headed the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, was Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, and worked as Chairman of Ukrtelecom’s Board of Directors in 1997-2000.
“The shareholders confirmed the top managers’ course towards further modernization of the company and an increase in the share of revenue from new IP services,” the press service said.
As reported, PJSC Ukrtelecom completed 2017 with a net profit of UAH 867 million, which was 44.3% more than in 2016. The operator’s net income over the year increased by 1.7%, to UAH 6.654 billion.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew by 4.9%, to UAH 1.867 million, EBITDA margin rose by 1.8 percentage points, to 28.1%. The company’s capital investment decreased by 0.7%, to UAH 948 million.
