MP Marian Zablotskyi proposes to add to the draft law on customs clearance of cars through Diia a permit for mass importation of junk cars into Ukraine without any technical condition checks.
People’s Deputy Marian Zablotskyi is trying to allow the import of junk cars to Ukraine without any checks, which are banned from the EU and the US due to their poor technical condition and danger to drivers and passengers. As it became known, Zablotskyi proposes to add the relevant amendments to the draft law 10380 on customs clearance of cars through Diia, which was adopted as a basis. As a reminder, the idea of the MP’s colleagues in the faction and the Ministry of Digital Transformation was to simplify the procedure for customs clearance of cars, not to cancel technical condition checks.
Earlier, the MP’s attempts to introduce uncontrolled import of cars by introducing draft laws 9460 and 9210 were stopped in time in the committees on economic policy and law enforcement, and the Government concluded that such ideas of Marian Zablotskyi would harm Ukraine’s European integration, economy and road safety.
In particular, the Ministry of Economy, in its opinion on Draft Law 9460, emphasized that its adoption would negatively affect Ukraine’s fulfillment of its obligations under the Association Agreement, as the introduction of unilateral recognition of conformity assessment results conducted in EU member states would offset the results achieved in the negotiation process on the conclusion of the Agreement on “industrial visa-free regime” in the first priority sectors of industrial products – machinery. As for the consequences for citizens and businesses, the Ministry of Economy stated them very simply: higher car prices. The Ministry also noted that registering a vehicle in countries where minimum safety requirements apply cannot be equated with assessing compliance with the requirements in force in Ukraine. That is, draft law 9460 could have led to an increase in road accidents.
However, Zablotskyi is again trying to push the same proposals – this time to draft law 10380.
As you know, in the EU and the US, the main reasons for deregistering and selling a car are that it has high mileage or has been involved in an accident. Often, due to the high mileage, these cars have their engines replaced, catalytic converters and particulate filters removed due to their failure before they even get to Ukraine. Thus, a car that was once registered in the EU or the US and a car that later entered Ukraine are completely different cars in terms of safety and environmental parameters.
Thus, if Zablotskyi’s amendments are adopted, vehicles that do not meet the requirements of the technical regulations will be imported into Ukraine en masse, and without undergoing a certification procedure or any inspection of the technical condition of the vehicle, they will be registered and allowed to participate in road traffic, which will lead to an increase in the number of accidents on Ukrainian roads, as the technical condition will not be controlled.
ArcelorMittal increased EBITDA by 35% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the fourth quarter of 2023 to $1.96 billion, the company said in a statement.
The main increase in EBITDA was driven by improved performance of assets in North America, Brazil, Europe and India.
Operating profit in the last quarter amounted to $1 billion compared to a loss of $1.98 billion in the previous period.
Net profit in January-March amounted to $938 million, compared to a loss of almost $3 billion a quarter earlier.
Revenue increased by 12% last quarter compared to the fourth quarter, amounting to $16.28 billion.
ArcelorMittal’s capex in working capital amounted to $1.7 billion in January-March. The capex target for this year is $4.5-5 billion.
In the first quarter, the company increased steel production by 5% quarter-on-quarter to 14.4 million tons. Last quarter, metal shipments increased by 1.5% to 13.5 million tons. The company’s iron ore production increased by 4.8% to 6.5 million tons in the quarter.
According to ArcelorMittal’s forecasts, global steel consumption, excluding China, will increase by 3-4% in 2024. At the same time, demand in the US will increase by 1.5-3.5%, in Europe by 2-4%, in Brazil by 0.5-2.5%, and in India by 6.5-8.5%.
Zaporozhkoks, one of Ukraine’s largest coke and chemical producers and part of Metinvest Group, increased its blast furnace coke output by 1.5% year-on-year to 286.98 thousand tons from 282.6 thousand tons in January-April this year.
According to the company, it produced 72.1 thousand tons of coke in April.
As reported, Zaporozhkoks increased its blast furnace coke output by 16% in 2023 compared to 2022, up to 856.8 thousand tons from 737.4 thousand tons.
“Zaporozhkoks produces about 10% of coke in Ukraine and has a full technological cycle of coke products processing. It also produces coke oven gas and pitch coke.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated mining group of companies. Its major shareholders are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
The Italian embassy in Ukraine has held a ceremony of handing over three ambulances with humanitarian aid, which was the result of the mission of the La Memoria Viva association.
According to the embassy’s press service, employees of the diplomatic institution met Italian volunteers who brought three cars for their symbolic handover to Ukrainians.
The ceremony was attended by people’s deputy Oleksiy Krasov, deputy chairman of Kharkiv region Eugene Ivanov and two representatives of local authorities from the same region – chairman of Bogodukhov district Anatoliy Rystsov and mayor of Krasnokutsk Irina Karabut.
“‘La Memoria Viva’ has launched its 45th humanitarian mission in Ukraine, which continues unabated after more than two years of invasion, and which makes us proud,” said Ambassador Pier Francesco Zazzo.
This aid, made possible thanks to the community of Osegna (Turin) and the Lions Club Turati del Canavese, dedicated to the memory of Senator Eugenio Bozzello. Two medical ambulances will be donated to Kharkiv region and a veterinary ambulance will be donated to the animal shelter “Italia KJ2”, which is run by Italian Andrea Cisternino.
In the first quarter of 2024, Ukrnafta sold 52.6 mln liters of fuel in NAFTA cards and coupons. In particular, 18.7 million liters were sold in March.
The company’s press service reports.
In total, 140.4 million liters of fuel have been sold since the beginning of 2023, when the company launched its own B2B program.
The number of customers – public and private enterprises – exceeds 3 thousand.
Regional sales offices have been opened in Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa, Dnipro, Lutsk, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Lviv, Cherkasy, and Mukachevo.
Ukrnafta coupons are accepted at 866 filling stations and cards at 1003 filling stations across the country, including SOCAR, Ovis, VST and other networks.
The number of “cash registers in a smartphone” is twice as high as traditional ones
According to the Tax Service, 877.6 thousand cash registers are currently registered in Ukraine. Almost 70% of all registered financial accounting devices are PTRs, while the popularity of “traditional” cash registers is steadily declining. Back in 2021, the number of online cash registers was 8.5 times lower, indicating an increase in their popularity.
69% of the total number of cash registers, i.e. almost 605 thousand, are now PTRs. Their number increased 1.6 times over the year. Compared to the period before the full-scale invasion, in 2021, the number of “cash registers in smartphones” increased 8.5 times. It is worth noting that online cash registers appeared only in 2020.
At the same time, traditional cash registers have been losing popularity since March 2022. Over 2 years, their number has decreased by 15% – from 323.1 thousand to 273.1 thousand.
Accordingly, there are now 2.2 times more cash registers than cash registers. For comparison, at the beginning of April 2021, the situation was radically different – the number of cash registers was 4.2 times higher than online cash registers. So then, every hundredth check was from a cash register, and in 2024 – every second.
The average amount of cash register checks has also increased – 11 times in 3 years. If in 2021 it was UAH 9 billion, now it is UAH 103 billion.
In 2024, the total amount per month for PTRO checks averaged UAH 238.4 billion, almost half of which – 43% – was from online cash registers. For comparison, in 2021, this amount averaged UAH 142.8 billion, and the share of PTRs was only 6%.
“Businesses prefer cash registers for their convenience, easy installation, and lower price compared to fiscal machines. The fact that the Ministry of Finance is planning to limit the operation of cash registers – to ban the offline mode, to return paper accounting books and gluing receipts – in today’s situation looks like a shot in the foot. Instead of leaving Ukraine in the club of highly digitalized countries, they are trying to drag us back to the bureaucratic past, where doing business is expensive and difficult,” comments Rodion Yeroshek, CEO and co-founder of the Ukrainian restaurant automation company Poster.
Context.
As of October 1, 2023, the moratorium on inspections of the use of PTRs by entrepreneurs was lifted, and now it has become mandatory. If a tax audit of the documentation reveals that sole proprietors make a profit from the sale of goods unofficially, they will face a hefty fine. This condition partly explains the rapid growth in the popularity of using PTRs.
Currently, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine plans to restrict the operation of “cash registers in a smartphone”.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/safe-prro
