Four EU countries – Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Estonia – propose to Brussels to ban the import of waste and scrap ferrous metals, copper and aluminum from Russia.
Such a proposal was presented at a meeting of the European Union Environment Council held on March 25, the Lithuanian Environment Ministry said.
“Lithuania proposes that the European Commission assess all possibilities at EU level and make a proposal to suspend waste imports from Russia to the EU or allow Member States to adopt unilateral restrictive measures. We believe that such imports contribute to financing Russia’s war against Ukraine and should be stopped,” Lithuania’s deputy permanent representative to the EU, Ambassador Jurga Kasputene, said at the council meeting.
According to the Environment Ministry, more than 118 million euros worth of waste and scrap ferrous metals, copper and aluminum were imported from Russia to the EU in 2022-2023. Most of these imports go through Lithuania.
According to the ministry, cross-border transportation of waste is regulated by the Basel Convention and the Waste Transportation Regulation, so individual member states cannot unilaterally ban or restrict such imports.
ALUMINUM, BRUSSELS, COPPER, FERROUS METAL, IMPORTS, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, SCRAP
In 2023, the largest alcohol producers increased their income tax payments by 1.7 times compared to 2022, and their income tax efficiency increased from 1.4% in 2022 to 2.0% in 2023, said Danylo Hetmantsev, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy.
“Measures to de-shadow the alcoholic beverage market, despite the fierce resistance of black market areas (the so-called ‘business defenders’ and ‘sofa experts’), are yielding positive results in the form of budget revenues,” he wrote on Telegram.
The committee chairman named National Vodka Company LLC (Bayadera Group), LVN Limited LLC (TM Nemiroff), Lviv Distillery, and Shustov-Spirt ALC as the leaders in terms of tax efficiency.
According to him, Global Spirit Group has significantly improved its VAT tax efficiency from 3.5% in 2022 to 6.1% in 2023 and 9.4% in 2 months of 2024.
According to Mr. Hetmantsev, the largest alcohol producers have improved their performance not only in terms of income tax, but also in terms of VAT. For two months of this year, VAT payable has already been declared by 28.1% more than in the same period last year.
At the same time, the VAT tax efficiency increased to 6.2% in two months of 2024 from 4.9% in two months of 2023. At the same time, this figure increased by 5.2% compared to 2023.
Number of refugees from Ukraine in selected countries as of 31.01.2024
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
FDI McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd, which is developing the McDonald’s fast food chain in Ukraine, plans to open six new restaurants in 2024, Yulia Badritdinova, CEO of McDonald’s Ukraine, Czech Republic and Slovakia, said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“In 2023, we expanded our network to 101 restaurants, 10 of which are new restaurants. We have opened a new format – on the highway (near Zhytomyr and in Oleksandriya). These establishments are not just on the highway, they are tied to the city where we can hire staff and whose residents are also our customers. We plan to open at least six restaurants in 2024,” she said.
Badritdinova also said that one of the chain’s goals for this year is to achieve representation in each of the regions.
“There are two regions where we are not yet represented – Zaporizhzhia and Chernivtsi, and I hope we will open restaurants this year,” she said.
The first McDonald’s restaurant in Ukraine was opened on May 24, 1997 in Kyiv.
As reported, on September 20, 2022, McDonald’s began a phased opening of restaurants in Ukraine. By February 24 of the same year, the chain had 109 restaurants in 24 cities across the country. As of March 2024, there are 101 restaurants in operation.
At the end of 2023, it increased its revenue by 3.9 times compared to the previous year, to UAH 12.9 billion, according to Opendatabot.
According to the financial results for 2023, the company’s net profit amounted to UAH 1.29 billion, compared to a loss of UAH 2 billion in 2022.
The value of McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd’s assets amounted to UAH 5.54 billion, while the amount of liabilities increased 2.3 times to UAH 829.7 million.
The number of employees in 2023 increased by 7% to 9,614.
McDonald’s in Ukraine is a founding partner and the largest corporate partner of the Ronald McDonald House Foundation in Ukraine.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the participant in FDI in McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd. is MCD Europe Limited (100%, London, UK).
Starting April 1, 2024, according to the Law “On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2024”, the minimum wage in Ukraine will increase to UAH 8 thousand. This will change the amount of certain employment-related payments, the amount of which is aligned with the minimum wage.
In particular, the maximum amount of compensation to employers will increase.
Thus, the amount of compensation for the employment of citizens who have been registered as unemployed for more than 1 month (people with disabilities, combatants and those who have no more than 5 years left before the right to an old-age pension) will now amount to UAH 8 thousand (1 minimum wage).
Compensation for the employment of young people among the registered unemployed (under 25 years of age – with less than 12 months of insurance experience; under 35 years of age – for the first job; discharged from military / alternative service – for the first job) will increase to UAH 4 thousand (50 percent of the minimum wage).
The compensation for employment of citizens who have been registered as unemployed for more than 1 month and have additional employment guarantees or have been registered for more than 6 months will increase to UAH 3,520 (double the minimum insurance premium, which is 22 percent of the minimum wage).
Compensation for the employment of internally displaced persons during martial law will amount to UAH 8 thousand (1 minimum wage) starting from April 1, 2024. At the same time, the compensation of employer’s expenses for labor remuneration of IDPs hired by the employment centers will increase to UAH 16 thousand (2 minimum wages).
The amount of partial unemployment benefits per employee or individual entrepreneur will also increase to UAH 4 thousand (50% of the minimum wage).
The maximum amount of remuneration for participation in public works will also increase and from April 1 will amount to UAH 12 thousand per month (1.5 times the minimum wage).
For reference: Since the beginning of 2024, 295 employers in the capital have used the compensation programs of the Kyiv SLC and received payments in the amount of over UAH 7 million.
compensation to employers, LAW, minimum wage, State Budget of Ukraine, WAGES
On the night of Sunday, March 31, Ukraine will switch to daylight saving time: at 3:00 a.m., the clock will be set one hour forward.
As reported, back in 2021, the Verkhovna Rada failed to pass a law abolishing seasonal time change, which proposes to fix winter time UTC +2 according to the international Coordinated Universal Time system in Ukraine.
MPs talked about the possibility of abolishing the government decree of May 13, 1996, on the procedure for calculating time in Ukraine, canceling the transition to daylight saving time, but the Cabinet of Ministers did not make a corresponding decision.
