The Polish Trade Inspectorate for Quality of Agricultural and Food Products (IJHARS) has fined 1.5 million zlotys (about $380,000) to an importing company that imported technical rapeseed and fodder wheat to the Polish market and sold them to a number of local companies as food agricultural products, according to the website of the agency.
It is specified that the trade inspection checked 3,882 tons of rapeseed and revealed the facts of changing the declared purpose from technical to consumer use and the declared country of origin from Ukraine to Poland.
A similar decision on the importing company in the form of imposing a fine was issued for the shipment of 7679 tons of wheat, which also revealed a discrepancy between the purpose of the product and its country of origin.
“Agri-food products intended for technical purposes are generally not produced, stored or transported in accordance with the safety standards required for food products. They are competitively priced because they are not subject to the provisions of food law, and businesses selling them do not incur the costs associated with meeting higher safety standards,” the agency said.
The trade inspectorate, based on the analysis of seized documentation, found that the fined company had put on the market more than 11,500 tons of counterfeit rapeseed and wheat imported from Ukraine and resold the goods to six counterparties from the Pomeranian and Lubelskie voivodships.
“Regardless of the administrative decision issued, the case is also the subject of criminal proceedings under the supervision of the regional prosecutor’s office in Rzeszów,” the office emphasized.
The fine issued to IJHARS in Lublin is not an isolated case, the Trade Inspection Office emphasized. Over the past few months, 6 other companies were fined for similar violations in the supply of wheat, barley, poultry meat and for obstructing inspectors from inspecting cargoes from Ukraine.
According to Przemyslaw Rzodkiewicz, chief inspector of commodity quality of agricultural and food products, inspectors checked more than 82,000 shipments in 2023.
“In order to intensify activities to ensure proper quality and positive image of food products in Poland, we have created a special group in IJHARS to combat food fraud and will soon launch a campaign together with numerous partners to counter misinformation about this category of goods,” he said.
Kyivpastrans has signed a contract with Anadolu Isuzu Otomotiv Sanayii Ve Ticaret A.Ş. (Turkey) for the supply of 12-meter fully low-floor buses for EUR 18.595 million with financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
This information is contained in the notification of the award of the contract in the framework of the tender published in the Official Journal of the EU, which is cited by AllTransUA.
The tender for the supply of buses to Kyiv was announced back in March 2021, and the proposals were opened in November of the same year after several postponements, but the evaluation of the proposals was suspended due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation.
The first batch of buses, according to the tender announcement, is to be delivered within 8 months of receiving the advance payment, and the entire contract is designed for 22 months.
According to AllTransUA, the second bidder was also the Turkish company Otokar.
The number of buses is not specified in the announcement, but according to media reports, it can be up to 85 buses.
As reported, earlier Ukrainian bus manufacturers noted that they either could not participate in EIB tenders due to the conditions or preferred foreign participants.
In 2020, Kyiv purchased 200 Belarusian MAZ buses on lease.
In April, wrestling will return to Ukrainian television. Kyivstar TV is launching a WWE channel on its cinema and television platform, which will broadcast the world’s most famous wrestling competitions, including WrestleMania.
Previously, the WWE show was broadcast in Ukraine from 2009 to 2013 on QTV. Back then, it was very popular among viewers. In addition to the fights themselves, viewers remembered the extremely accurate commentary from Oleksandr Belkin and Serhiy Novak, who will become commentators for the next matches on the WWE channel.
When asked how large the wrestling audience is, Belkin says that it is very difficult to make any assumptions today, as the last Ukrainian-language program was broadcast at the end of 2013.
The next match, WrestleMania 40, will take place in Philadelphia on April 7 and 8 at 02:00 Kyiv time. This two-day event deserves special attention of wrestling fans, as it will feature Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
“The audience should expect, first of all, a bright, unforgettable, sports show! A show where dreams are made or broken, a show of real, best professionals in their field! For me personally, the main question is: will this Wrestlemania bring another victory to Roman Reigns? I hope not (smiles – ed.), but we’ll see! I’ll be waiting for everyone live, two nights in a row,” said Alexander Belkin.
WrestleMania is one of the oldest and most significant events in wrestling. Participation in this event is considered the main achievement of a wrestler in his career. It is where championship matches and competitions between the most conflicting athletes take place. This sport is a theatrical wrestling event that combines elements of athleticism, martial arts, and theatrical performance.
The WWE channel is available on Kyivstar TV’s movie and TV platform in the Online TV section. The platform’s users will be able to find the recordings of the matches in the video library, so they can watch their favorite sporting events at their convenience.
“We are glad to be the first to bring wrestling back to Ukraine, and moreover, to allow fans to watch their favorite shows with a legendary commentator in their native language,” commented Pavlo Rybak, CEO of Kyivstar TV.
In addition to WrestleMania 40, Kyivstar TV will broadcast such shows as Money in the Bank, SummerSlam Detroit, Crown Jewel, Survivor Series: War Games, Royal Rumble, Backlash France, Bash in Berlin. Weekly events will also be available for viewing: WWE RAW on Tuesdays, WWE SMAKEDOWN on Saturdays, and WWE NXT on Wednesdays.
How to watch the WWE channel?
You can watch wrestling competitions from any device: smartphone, laptop, tablet or Smart TV. To do this, you need to download the application or open the Kyivstar TV website, which are available to users of all mobile operators and Internet providers, and subscribe.
WWE channel is included in all standard packages – Basic, Family, Premium HD.
Kyivstar subscribers can also activate Superpower by Kyivstar TV to watch content on the platform under the terms of their tariff. Super Power is an optional service available in the tariff at no extra charge.
You can choose your Superpower and check the possibility of its activation in the My Kyivstar application, by calling the toll-free number 500 or by dialing a special USSD code *500*4# or by contacting consultants in Kyivstar stores. By choosing Super Power Kyivstar TV, you will have access to 400 TV channels and 18,000 movies, series, shows and cartoons after the subscription fee is recharged.
Subscribers of other operators can connect premium access to the movie and TV platform for 14 days for UAH 29.
For reference:
Kyivstar TV is a joint project of 1+1 media and Kyivstar, founded on December 11, 2019. It is a film and television platform that provides users with access to hundreds of thousands of hours of domestic and foreign content, live programs, and regularly offers exclusive pre-premiere screenings of projects. The platform has more than 400 TV channels and a VOD library of 20 thousand movies, series, cartoons, and shows. Find out more about new releases on the platform on the Kino for TV telegram channel.
Ukraine’s international reserves in March, according to preliminary estimates of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), increased by 18%, or $6.7 billion – to $43 billion 762.7 million.
“Such dynamics is due to significant (more than $9 billion) volumes of receipts from international partners, which exceeded the net sale of currency by the National Bank and the country’s debt payments in foreign currency,” the NBU website explained on Friday.
In addition, the National Bank noted that $9.32 billion was transferred to foreign currency accounts of the Cabinet of Ministers in March, while $363.5 million was paid for servicing and repayment of the state debt.
As the regulator noted, Ukraine also paid $728.5m to the International Monetary Fund.
Among other factors determining the volume of reserves, the NBU named operations on the foreign exchange market: in March, the regulator’s net sale of foreign currency amounted to $1.79bn, which is 18.5% more than in the previous month.
According to balance sheet data, the NBU sold $1.81 bln on the foreign exchange market and bought $25.9 mln in reserves.
The central bank also indicated that the current volume of reserves was positively affected by the revaluation of the value of financial instruments, adding $266.3 million.
“The current volume of international reserves provides funding for 5.8 months of future imports,” the regulator stated.
As reported, the NBU in January reduced the forecast of Ukraine’s international reserves at the end of 2024 to $40.4 billion from $44.7 billion and to $42.1 billion from $45 billion at the end of 2025. Earlier, Experts Club analytical center and Maxim Urakin released a video analysis of how the GDP of the world’s countries has changed in recent years, more detailed video analysis is available here – https://youtu.be/w5fF_GYyrIc?si=BsZmIUERHSBJrO_3 Subscribe to Experts Club YouTube channel here – https://www.youtube.com/@ExpertsClub
EXPERTS CLUB, GDP, International reserves of Ukraine, MACROECONOMICS, NATIONAL BANK OF UKRAINE, NBU, URAKIN
Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group is expected to increase its payments to budgets of all levels by 60% year-on-year to over UAH 4 billion from UAH 2.5 billion in January-March this year.
Metinvest’s CFO Yulia Dankova told dsnews.ua that the dynamics of payments is positive, although it is negative compared to the first quarter of 2022, when the company paid UAH 6.9 billion in taxes, but this accrual was based on the results of the pre-war fourth quarter of 2021.
At the same time, she clarified that, in particular, the group’s enterprises in Pokrovsk, located a few tens of kilometers from the front line, paid more than UAH 261 million in taxes and fees in 2023, which is a third of all tax revenues to the local budget. The largest items of deductions are personal income tax in the amount of over UAH 245 million, rent for subsoil use – UAH 8.5 million, property tax – UAH 4.5 million, land payment – over UAH 3 million, and environmental tax – over UAH 2.3 million.
“We believe that this is a significant contribution to the development of local communities and support of the country’s defense capability in general,” said the CFO.
Answering the question about the need to improve tax legislation to enable businesses to operate more efficiently in the war, Dankova explained that Ukraine is still discussing the possibility of introducing tax consolidation.
“For some time it was not in focus. But, given the current realities, we believe that this issue should be revisited, because it is a high-quality tax civilized practice. For example, our coal mining company UCC in the US consolidates taxes and reports for the entire list of legal entities – coal mining companies,” the CFO said.
Another important issue is tax duplication. For example, the group’s mining and processing plants pay several types of taxes for one facility: environmental tax, land tax, waste disposal fee and subsoil tax. Plus income tax.
“These all seem to be different taxes, but we pay a lot of them for just one quarry. It does not seem fair to us, and we believe that taxes are duplicated. We could use this resource for investments that will create new jobs. In addition, this is also budget revenues in the form of import VAT and customs duties. This is an increase in our efficiency, which in turn will generate more income tax,” the top manager is convinced.
As for the situation with VAT refunds for exported products, Metinvest, as an export-oriented company, expects VAT refunds, “and the mechanism is generally working, but there are some important issues that are not being resolved.” For example, some of the counterparties from whom the company purchases services or goods are considered risky by the tax authorities. These counterparties withdraw VAT, and it does not go to the budget, as it should according to the law.
Instead of targeting these risky taxpayers, the tax authorities deny VAT refunds to companies like Metinvest that operate in a formal and transparent manner. In essence, the tax authorities are punishing such companies because their unscrupulous counterparties do not pay VAT to the budget. This practice has been going on for many years.
Now, in the context of military operations, the importance of this problem is growing because it affects working capital. The company does not receive VAT refunds because the government has not learned how to deal with risky taxpayers. Ultimately, the state will see an increase in tax revenues if this issue is resolved. In addition, the tax office will not divert so many resources that can be directed to more useful things, Dankova believes.
The CFO expressed concern about the impossibility of reconstructing enterprises by 2026 as part of the EU’s increased requirements for environmental friendliness and emissions reduction due to the war.
“This is a challenge for Metinvest’s Ukrainian operations. We planned to rebuild our plants to produce low-carbon steel. However, we will not be able to complete the green transformation of our enterprises by 2026 because of the war. We cannot invest in large-scale projects in Ukraine right now. Therefore, there are two options: Ukraine’s accelerated accession to the EU and joining the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) or postponing CBAM requirements for Ukraine,” the CFO summarized.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies. The group’s enterprises are located mainly in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovs’k regions.
The main shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage it.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
In January-March 2024, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” increased its revenue from timber sales by 30.8% compared to the same period in 2023, up to UAH 5.1 billion, said the company’s CEO Yuriy Bolokhovets.
“Tax payments increased by more than UAH 850 million. Pre-tax profit increased to almost UAH 1 billion,” he wrote on Facebook.
Bolokhovets mentioned the blockade of the western borders as one of the negative factors that affected the company’s performance, which led to a rise in the cost of export logistics. This, in turn, affected both processors and foresters.
Among the positive factors, the CEO of Forests of Ukraine mentioned the closure of forestry processing shops, which were not cost-effective to maintain.
“The denationalization of the processing market has increased competition, transparency, and significantly reduced corruption risks,” Bolokhovets said, adding that the abandonment of forestry processing will have a more significant impact on the economic performance of the second and third quarters.
As reported, Ukraine launched a forestry reform in 2016. It has already introduced the sale of unprocessed timber at electronic auctions. Since 2021, an interactive map of wood processing facilities has been operating in a test mode in a number of regions.
The industry has implemented the Forest in a Smartphone project, which contains a list of logging tickets for timber harvesting and allows you to check the legality of logging on the agency’s online map.
On June 1, 2023, Ukraine launched a pilot for the electronic issuance of logging tickets and certificates of origin of timber. In addition, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has launched a pilot project to procure timber harvesting services through the electronic platform Prozorro.
