The State Fiscal Service of Ukraine has reported about growth in customs violations by 51% in 2018 compared with 2017, to 48,900 cases of violation of customs rules for the amount of UAH 3.4 billion. The authority reported that the value of goods involved in rules violation cases doubled. In 5,400 cases of violation of customs rules the State Fiscal Service seized goods for UAH 914 million.
“The most common cases are the illegal movement of industrial goods across the customs border. During this period, goods worth UAH 568.6 million were seized for committing violations,” the authority said.
Including customs seized vehicles for UAH 149.9 million, food products for UAH 119.3 million and currency for UAH 76 million.
“According to the results of international cooperation in 2018, more than 712 cases of violation of customs regulations were initiated for the amount of UAH 686.5 million. In addition, during the international cooperation, non-payment of more than UAH 21.2 million of obligatory customs payments was established,” the fiscal service said.
The territorial divisions of the State Fiscal Service, based on the responses received, initiated 29 criminal proceedings, the authority said.
The specialized fleet of Delta-Pilot, the branch of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, almost doubled dredging in 2018 compared with 2017, to 1.341 million cubic meters. More than a third of this volume (497,300 cubic meters) is the result of the operation of the Meotid dredger in Mariupol and Berdiansk ports of the Sea of Azov. Last year, operational dredging was also carried out in the port of Izmail, on the Kherson marine and Bug-Dnieper-Limansky canals, as well as on the Danube-Black Sea approach canal.
Currently the specialized fleet of the Delta-Pilot branch is undergoing planned preparation for new navigation: the classification and dock repairs are carried out at all ships.
Ship repairs are scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2019 and, upon termination of spawning (June 1–15), they will proceed to the implementation of operational dredging.
As reported, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority announced two tenders for dredging in Berdiansk and Mariupol ports totaling 1.85 million cubic meters and 1.9 million cubic meters. The expected cost of work is UAH 430 million without VAT and UAH 460 million without VAT respectively.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
A group of lawmakers from the Verkhovna Rada have registered bill No. 9507 proposing that sale of plastic bags in stores and other retail outlets is banned. According to the explanatory note to the bill, it is proposed to prohibit the implementation of ultra-light and light plastic bags. Exceptions are biodegradable bags and ultralight bags for meat, fish, and bulk solids. In addition, the bill provides for mandatory labeling of plastic bags.
The bill aims at reducing the amount of safe waste from polyethylene.
According to the information on the website of the parliament, 60 MPs were the initiators of the bill, including Boryslav Bereza (member of no faction), Serhiy Kiral (Samopomich), Olena Sotnik (Samopomich), Mustafa Nayyem (Petro Poroshenko Bloc), Oleksiy Mushak (Petro Poroshenko Bloc) and others.
Westinghouse (the United States) is working on resumption of production processes required for fabrication of fuel for VVER-440 type reactors, Westinghouse President José Emeterio Gutiérrez has said in an interview with the Energoatom Ukrainy magazine.
“Currently, Westinghouse is resuming all production processes in this area of production and will be ready to supply fuel for the VVER-440 [reactors] after signing a commercial agreement with Energoatom,” he said.
The company president also said that Westinghouse had previously supplied fuel for reactors of this type at Finland’s Loviisa nuclear power plant (NPP).
“The updated design of this fuel, which will meet the needs of Ukrainian reactors at the Rivne NPP, has already been determined,” he said.
Regarding the supply of fuel assemblies produced by Westinghouse to reactor three of the Rivne NPP (VVER-1000 reactor), which currently consumes Russian-made fuel, Gutiérrez expressed the hope that the switch of the reactor to Westinghouse fuel, as planned, would be carried out in 2021.
