Public procurement of Chinese and Turkish goods is in violation of the law on localization to the detriment of Ukrainian producers, said Dmytro Kysylevsky, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Development.
“While Ukrainian producers are working under fire and paying salaries to Ukrainian citizens, public customers are spending money on Chinese and Turkish goods, violating the law on localization,” the MP wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
He also noted that the number of tenders with gross violations increased to 15 in July. In these cases, Chinese and Turkish trams, buses, bulldozers, etc. were purchased at the expense of state-owned companies and company taxpayers. As a result, Ukrainian citizens lose their jobs, Ukrainian enterprises lose their orders, and state and community budgets lose taxes. Ultimately, this is a direct damage to the Armed Forces in the context of war, Kysylevsky emphasized.
According to him, the top 5 of this “rating of shame” include: Kryvyi Rih City Council’s Skhidnyi Tram, which purchased a Turkish-made Bobcat excavator worth UAH 7.56 million, the supplier being Alfatech Trading House LLC. Also, Mykolaiv Parks Municipal Enterprise of Mykolaiv City Council purchased a Chinese road machine MDK-5/28 worth UAH 7.5 million, the supplier being Production and Commercial Enterprise Alfatex.
In addition, the Central Enterprise for Radioactive Waste Management purchased a Turkish bus AR-TEMSA PRESTIJ SX for UAH 5.49 million, the supplier being SpetsTechnika+ LLC. Also, Municipal Motor Transport Enterprise 072801 of the Uzhhorod City Council purchased a Chinese bulldozer SINOMACH GTY 160 for UAH 4.65 million, the supplier being Spetszapchastyna Trading Company LLC. And the executive committee of the Kurylivka village council of Kupianske village council in Kharkiv region purchased a Turkish dump truck on a Ford Trucks chassis for UAH 4.65 million, the supplier being TEK-TRANS LLC.
“For each of the 15 gross violations identified, I will send deputy appeals to the Ministry of Economy and the State Audit Service of Ukraine (SASU – IF-U) for response. On my initiative, the CMD Ukraine think tank will continue to investigate each tender with localization of procedural violations and outright fraud. No one expected the changes to be easy. But in the end, common sense must prevail. Ukrainian taxpayers’ money should be spent where jobs are created for Ukrainian citizens, not Chinese or Turkish ones,” the MP stated.
According to him, the Ukrainian industry is capable of meeting all the needs of the state and communities with high quality goods and services.
“We will continue to fight until every official realizes this,” summarized the Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Development.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) this week again increased net sales of foreign currency on the interbank market to $646.30 million from $624.49 million a week earlier, according to the regulator’s data. According to them, the central bank refrained from buying foreign currency for the third week in a row, while sales jumped from $624.49m to $646.30m.
The official hryvnia exchange rate rose by 17 kopecks over the week. – UAH/$1 to 41.0592 UAH/$1, while on the cash market the hryvnia strengthened by about 11 kopecks when buying – to 41.30 UAH/$1 and by 10 kopecks when selling – to 41.40 UAH/$1
Since the beginning of 2024, the dollar at the official rate has appreciated by 8%, or by UAH 3.05, and since the transition of the National Bank on October 3, 2023 to the regime of managed flexibility – by 12.3%, or by UAH 4.49.
Thus, this month the hryvnia managed to fall by 0.1%, or by 5 kopecks, while in July the official hryvnia exchange rate fell by 1.4%, or by 55 kopecks – to 41.0063 UAH/$1. In June, its decline slowed to 3 kopecks after weakening by 90 kopecks in May.
As evidenced by the data that the NBU managed to publish for this period, from Monday to Thursday the negative balance between the volume of currency purchases and sales by the population gradually widened from $5.96 mln to $36.63 mln.
Ukraine’s international reserves in July, according to preliminary estimates of the National Bank, decreased by 1.8%, or $572.3 million – to $37 billion 231.9 million, while net international reserves (NIR) fell by $3 billion – to $23.30 billion. According to the quantitative performance criterion (QPC) in the updated program of expanded financing of the EFF, Ukraine’s NIR at the end of September this year should be at least $28.8 billion, and at the end of the year – at least $26.3 billion.
At the same time, according to the Ministry of Finance, Ukraine received about $8.4bn of external financing in August. In particular, $4.5bn from the EU under the Ukraine Facility, of which $1.6bn is a grant, as well as $3.9bn grant from the US through the World Bank’s PEACE in Ukraine project.
The World Bank Board of Directors has approved a new $415 million systemic project in Ukraine, “Making Education Accessible and Resilient in Ukraine’s Crisis (LEARN),” aimed at improving primary and secondary education in Ukraine, reaching one million students, teachers, and school staff.
“It is critical to mitigate the impact of war on children, especially those from the most vulnerable families, by minimizing disruption to the learning process,” World Bank Regional Director for Eastern Europe Bob Soma was quoted as saying in a World Bank release on Saturday night.
It is specified that the LEARN programs include measures aimed at improving overall school safety conditions, providing free transportation for vulnerable students, conducting teacher training, purchasing textbooks and improving governance in the education sector. The project also aims to help implement a comprehensive education reform in grades 1-12, known as the New Ukrainian School (NUS), which is aligned with EU standards, the WB pointed out.
“The LEARN project will help thousands of Ukrainian students return to a protected learning environment,” Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko was quoted as saying in the release.
It is specified that the project is implemented using the financial instrument “Program-for-results, Program-for-results” (PforR).
The Ministry of Finance notes that LEARN is aimed at improving conditions for teaching and learning, implemented at the expense of subventions from the state budget to local budgets.
The WB notes that initial funding for the LEARN program includes $235 million from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (IBRD) ADVANCE Ukraine Trust Fund, $150 million from the International Development Association’s (IDA) Special Program for the Reconstruction of Ukraine and Moldova, and $30 million from the Ukraine Support, Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reform Trust Fund (URTF). The program provides results-based financing that can be scaled up if additional funds are available.
On Thursday, the international chain JYSK opened a new store in Kryvyi Rih in the Terra shopping center at 1B Charivna Street, the retailer’s press service reported.
“The new JYSK store in Kryvyi Rih is located in the renovated Terra shopping center in the 5th Zarechnyi district. This store is the third in the city, the 99th in Ukraine and one of 29 JYSK stores planned to be opened by the company in August 2024 in Europe,” said JYSK Country Director in Ukraine Yevhen Ivanitsa, as quoted in the press release.
The new store will have a selling area of 1034 square meters, a warehouse of 307 square meters, and office space of 41.05 square meters. In addition, there are additional exhibition areas for furniture in front of the store and on the outer territory of the shopping center.
It is noted that in connection with the opening of the new store in the city, eight new employees joined the JYSK team, and four more were promoted. JYSK has more than 800 employees in the country.
Currently, there are 99 stores and the online store jysk.ua in Ukraine.
JYSK is part of the family-owned Lars Larsen Group with more than 3.4 thousand stores in 48 countries.
JYSK’s revenue in the financial year 2022/23 amounted to EUR 5.2 billion.
“Corum Druzhkovka Machine-Building Plant (Corum DrMZ), a part of Corum Group (DTEK Energy), will complete the production of a second mine fan for Blagodatnaya mine at Geroyev Kosmosa Mine this fall, the company said.
“At the end of 2023, the plant manufactured and delivered the first VOD-30M2 to the customer, and is now working on the second similar fan, which will be ready this fall. The new equipment is to replace the old fan that has reached the end of its service life,” the plant’s Facebook page says.
The complexity of the order is that the new equipment needs to be installed on an existing foundation.
The report reminds that VOD-30M2 is a two-stage axial fan with a 3 m impeller diameter and a capacity of 1250 kW (equivalent to the power of 8-16 passenger cars). The capacity is 160 cubic meters per second.
“Corum DrMZ, which will be relocated to Dnipro in 2022, manufactured 46 units of mining equipment in July this year to order from DTEK Energy mines.
According to Opendatabot, in 2023, the plant earned UAH 500 million in net profit, compared to a loss of UAH 453 million a year earlier, with net income increasing 2.7 times to UAH 1 billion 530 million.
Corum Group is a leading manufacturer of mining equipment in Ukraine. It is a part of DTEK Energy, the operating company responsible for coal mining and coal-fired power generation within Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK energy holding.
Blagodatnaya Mine, BUILDING PLANT, Druzhkovka Machine, Mine Fan
A revised draft law on tax increases during wartime (No. 11416-d) was registered in the Verkhovna Rada on Friday, the parliament’s website reports.
The text of the draft law on amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding the peculiarities of taxation during martial law is not yet available on the website.
The draft law is authored by MPs Danylo Hetmantsev and Andriy Motovylovets (Servant of the People faction) and Oleksandr Lukashev (Restoration of Ukraine parliamentary group).
As reported, the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy recommended that the Verkhovna Rada adopt as a basis the revised draft law on raising tax rates.
According to Committee Chairman Hetmantsev, the draft law provides for an increase in the military tax rate from 1.5% to 5%, setting the military tax at 1% of income for individual entrepreneurs (IEs) for single tax payers of group III and at 10% of the minimum wage for single tax payers of groups I, II and IV.
LAW, PARLIAMENT, TAX
