The Verkhovna Rada has exempted from value added tax (VAT) a number of goods imported to Ukraine for security and defense needs.
A total of 294 people’s deputies voted for the relevant draft law No. 9467 on amendments to the transitional provisions of the Tax Code on the peculiarities of importing into the customs territory of Ukraine goods for security and defense needs at the plenary session on Friday, a member of the faction “Golos” Yaroslav Zheleznyak said in his Telegram channel.
The bill exempts from VAT thermal imaging binoculars, monoculars and binoculars, night vision devices and rangefinders that are imported into the customs territory of Ukraine.
TAS Insurance Group (Kyiv) has paid UAH 1.567 million for a Hidromek HMK 370LC HD excavator drowned in a swampy area, having settled the incident in full, according to the insurer’s website.
It is specified that the incident occurred at one of the border areas in the Rivne region, where large construction equipment, including the excavator insured by TAS, was involved in the construction of additional protective structures. At some point, the excavator suddenly began to “sink”. To rescue the machine, the State Emergency Service was called, which used another excavator to try to make a flooring and at the same time launched drainage pumps.
After examining the circumstances of the incident, TAS Insurance Group, where the excavator was insured under the Pravoe KASKO contract, recognized the incident as insured and settled it in full.
Dynamics of exchange rate of hryvnia to U.S. Dollar in 2022-2023
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
The Verkhovna Rada on Thursday supported in the second reading and in general the bill No. 9346-1 with amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine on ensuring predictability of budget policy and strengthening debt sustainability, the head of the budget committee of the parliament Roksolana Pidlasa said.
According to her, the adoption of the law ahead of schedule means the implementation of a new structural beacon (#10) under the EFF Extended Fund Facility Program with the International Monetary Fund, as well as the launch of the implementation of beacon #12 – revision of the Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy with a deadline for its publication by the end of September this year.
Pidlasa specified that the adopted law prescribes to submit to each draft law on amendments to the state budget an expert opinion of the Ministry of Finance and to consider such draft laws in the Rada if there are conclusions of the Ministry of Finance on their support.
In addition, it restores more stringent conditions for amending the law on the state budget, as defined by Article 52 of the Budget Code, leaving the exception in the conditions of martial law revision of expenditures of the security and defense sector, the MP said.
Another norm of the adopted law is the restoration of the medium-term budget planning by drawing up the Budget Declaration from January 1, 2024, which was stopped last March due to the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, Pidlasa pointed out.
She added that the law limits in 2023-2028 the volume of state guarantees provided by decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers to 3% of the planned revenues of the general fund of the state budget, while the limit of state guarantees provided on the basis of international treaties will be determined by the law on the state budget.
Finally, the document instructs to resume this year the development of the Strategy of State Debt Management for 2024-2026, also halted due to the full-scale invasion, providing for its submission by the Ministry of Finance to the Government for consideration by October 25, 2023 and approval by the Government within a month from the date of adoption of the law on the state budget for 2024.
The National Bank has raised its forecast for Ukraine’s international reserves at the end of this year to $38.3 billion from $34.5 billion in its April forecast.
According to the NBU’s updated estimates presented at a briefing on Thursday, Ukraine’s international reserves will reach $42.6 billion at the end of next year and $44.1 billion a year later, while in April the National Bank gave more modest estimates of $36.1 billion and $37.1 billion, respectively.
The NBU expects that this year the external financing of the state budget alone will amount to $42 bln, and next year it estimates such a need at $37 bln.
According to its forecasts, such a large-scale financial external support will fully cover the negative current account balance, which this year and next year the NBU estimates at $11 bln, $17.2 bln and $16.1 bln, respectively.
As reported earlier, due to a significant inflow of external financing, Ukraine’s international reserves rose by 4.5 percent in June to a record high of $39.00bn.
Natural fires in Greece on Thursday reached the outskirts of the capital, reports Associated Press.
As noted, in particular, the fire in the area of the capital’s suburb of Kifissia spread rapidly due to increased wind. However, several helicopters and fire brigades were deployed to extinguish this fire. It was eventually extinguished.
Meanwhile, in the central part of Greece, near the city of Volos, the spread of forest fires has not yet stopped. Because of them closed part of one of the busiest highways. The movement of rail transport is carried out with interruptions.
Firefighters in Rhodes are fighting the raging fires for the 10th day. New fires are also reported in the forests on the island of Euboea.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday said more action is needed to combat climate change.
“Climate change may be a reality, but it cannot be an excuse. Our country needs to take more measures to be prepared to mitigate, as much as possible, the effects of this reality, which we are already beginning to feel and which could have dramatic effects on many aspects of our economic and social life,” he said.
