President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on changes in the composition of the National Investment Council on Tuesday, January 11.
According to decree No. 8/2022 published on the presidential website, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (by agreement) Ruslan Stefanchuk; Deputy Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine, Deputy Secretary of the Council Rostyslav Shurma; Deputy Chairman of the Servant of the People faction, Secretary of the Council (by agreement) Halyna Yanchenko were included in the staff of the National Investment Council.
Also, according to the document, Managing Partner of LV & PARTNERS (Georgia) Levan Varshalomidze (by agreement); First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko were approved in the personnel of the National Investment Council:
In turn, former Minister of Economy Oleksiy Liubchenko and ex-Speaker of Parliament Dmytro Razumkov were removed from the staff of the National Investment Council by the decree.
The decree comes into force on the day of its publication.
The poor work of government agencies leads to an annual budget shortfall of about UAH 9 billion from the sale of alcoholic beverages, competent agencies in 2019-2020 and over nine months of 2021 also did not provide an effective system of control over production and circulation of alcohol and administration of the excise tax.
These results were announced by auditors of the Accounting Chamber following an audit of the planning efficiency and control over the completeness and timeliness of a receipt of the excise tax on alcoholic beverages to the state budget on the department’s website on Tuesday.
“According to the World Health Organization, the share of illegal alcohol in Ukraine is more than a third of the total alcohol market and more than half of the strong alcohol market. Taxation of illegally produced and imported alcoholic beverages only can replenish the state budget from the excise tax by about UAH 9 billion a year,” the chamber says in a report.
The Accounting Chamber refers to the data of the State Tax Service, according to which production of alcoholic beverages in 2020 increased compared to 2019 by 11%, wine – decreased by 13%, and beer – by 0.5%. At the same time, according to the State Customs Service, imports of alcoholic beverages increased by almost 45%, wine – by half, and beer – by 11%.
At the same time, in 2020, the state budget received a total of UAH 42 billion of the excise tax on imported and produced in Ukraine alcoholic beverages, however, despite the increase in imports, the share of this tax in the total amount of tax revenues decreased from 1.9% in 2018 to 1.6% over nine months of 2021.
“The State Fiscal Service, the State Tax Service and the State Customs Service did not ensure proper intersectoral coordination on administration of the excise tax on alcoholic beverages, effective control of their production and circulation. This created the preconditions for illegal production and circulation of these products and, as a consequence, for the non-receipt of this tax in the state budget,” the chamber says in the report.
In addition, due to the poor work of the Ministry of Finance and the State Fiscal Service, the automated control system Electronic Excise Stamp has not been fully implemented, since the corresponding changes have not yet been made to the Tax Code and other legislative acts. The Accounting Chamber clarified that due to the software imperfection of the system for monitoring excise tax stamps, the State Customs Service inspectors still monitor circulation of excise stamps at customs posts mainly in paper, not electronic form.
The department recalled that in 2020 the State Customs Service did not plan and did not conduct documentary field checks, since the Ministry of Finance untimely approved the planning procedure by the customs authorities. At the same time, over nine months of 2021, the State Customs Service authorities conducted only two documentary checks of exporters of alcoholic beverages, as a result of which they additionally charged UAH 2.6 million in taxes (of which 0.8% was paid to the budget).
The auditors indicated in the report that the control by the State Fiscal Service bodies over the illegal movement of alcohol and alcoholic beverages was ineffective. During the study period (2019-2020 and nine months of 2021), customs officers seized more than 158,000 liters of alcohol, over 25,000 liters of alcoholic beverages and over 2 million stamps of excise tax, however, almost 74% of the seized alcohol was returned to the owners by a court ruling. According to the Accounting Chamber, this testifies to the groundlessness of separate decisions of the customs authorities, as well as the ineffectiveness of spending funds from the state budget to pay court fees in these cases.
“Based on the results of the audit, the Accounting Chamber recommended the government to improve legislation on administration of the excise tax. In particular, to speed up the implementation of the Electronic Excise Stamp full automated system of control over circulation of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, to improve the licensing of activities in this area, and to streamline the trade in alcoholic beverages through the Internet,” the organization says.
About 150 Ukrainian citizens have applied to the Ukrainian embassy in Kazakhstan for assistance in repatriation, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleh Nikolenko said.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine cooperates with the Kazakh authorities and the governments of foreign states to protect the interests of Ukrainians in Kazakhstan. About 150 citizens have applied to the Ukrainian embassy for assistance in returning to their homeland. At the same time, due to the gradual stabilization of the security situation, some compatriots report changes in their plans and decide to stay on the territory of Kazakhstan,” Nikolenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday. According to him, international flights with Nur-Sultan have been fully restored, with the exception of some flights of European airlines. “Regular flights to Kyiv are planned for January 13 and 16, which our citizens can use,” the speaker said.
He pointed out that transport links are also being restored, including rail, between major Kazakhstani cities.
“The Ukrainian embassy has agreed with the Kazakh railway on the possibility of purchasing group tickets for Ukrainian citizens who wish to arrive in Nur-Sultan for a further flight to Kyiv. The diplomats also agreed with Air Astana on the possibility of free rebooking of tickets for canceled flights from Almaty to new flights from Nur-Sultan,” Nikolenko said.
He said that the Foreign Ministry recommends that Ukrainians who wish to use this option to check in advance the availability of seats and the dates of flights from Nur-Sultan.
“According to the Kazakh side, the Astana international airport is also ready to resume full-fledged work. The exact time of opening the airport will be announced additionally,” he said.
Nikolenko said that there are no Ukrainians among the victims or detainees during the recent events in Kazakhstan. The Embassy of Ukraine maintains regular contact with citizens, will continue to provide them with consular assistance and inform them about possible ways to leave the country.
Wine producer Shabo (Odesa region) remains the only large enterprise in the country that uses grapevine as an alternative fuel to ensure production processes, the company’s press service has said. The press service said that since 2014, Shabo has been using a 1.1 MW boiler house for heating premises and wine-making processes, burning grapevines collected at the enterprise.
“We have huge vineyard areas (1,200 hectares) and tens of thousands of square meters of production facilities. This entire area needs to be heated and heat supplied for production processes. How to do this if it is impossible to deliver gas to the enterprise due to the peculiarities of the location? So we drew attention to our own resource – grapevine,” the company said, quoting Chief Engineer Valentyn Klius.
According to the report, annually the enterprise collects about 1,200 tonnes of grapevine scion, which is pruned to regulate the growth and fruiting of vineyards. The obtained scion volumes are sufficient to heat tens of thousands of square meters of the production complex, the Shabo Wine Culture Center, as well as supply heat for wine-making processes.
In addition, the ash left after burning the vine is used by the company as fertilizer for the soil.
According to the company, the boiler house with a capacity of 1.1 MW was designed and built in 2011-2014 by Kriger (PJSC Zhytomyrremkharchomash, Zhytomyr). The heating season starts in August, with the start of grape processing, and ends in March-April, when the heating season ends.
Shabo is a large Ukrainian wine producer, founded in 2003. It is engaged in the cultivation and processing of grapes, the production and sale of alcoholic beverages.
Since 2005, the company has been producing cognac and brandy, and since 2013 Shabo grape vodka. The production capacity of the complex, which occupies more than 10,000 square meters, provide a full cycle of production of strong alcoholic beverages of grape origin.
The Shabo product range is presented in all regions of Ukraine, as well as in Georgia, Israel, China, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Belgium, France, Denmark, the Czech Republic, the United States, Brazil, Canada, Azerbaijan, Japan, Norway and the U.K.
The processing capacity of the company per season is more than 20,000 tonnes of red and white grapes. Wine storage Shabo has a total area of about 10,000 square meters. Annually, Shabo produces 50 million bottles a year, a total of about 80 product names. Nine production lines are involved in bottling.
According to the public register of legal entities and sole proprietors, the ultimate beneficiary of Shabo Industrial and Trade Company LLC is Vazha Iukuridze, the ultimate beneficiaries of Agrofirma Shabo LLC (both are located in Odesa region, village of Shabo) are Iukuridze and Bela Cholikidze.
The representative office of Stellantis in Ukraine (the auto brands Peugeot, Citroёn, Opel, DS Automobiles) in 2022 plans to occupy more than 10% of the market of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (in 2021 the share was about 10%), including taking into account the brand Jeep, which Stellantis will officially represent in Ukraine from June 1, the press service of the company said.
“The strategic goal for 2022 is to strengthen our position, to “restart” the legendary Jeep brand, to occupy more than 10% of the Ukrainian automotive market,” the company said in a press release.
At the same time, it is clarified that several main areas of work with the Jeep brand and its further development in the Ukrainian market have been outlined: first of all, the development of the dealer network and related services, as well as the restart of four new models.
Also new models of other Stellantis brands will be presented in Ukraine: OPEL Astra, DS 4 and DS 9, Peugeot 308.
“Particular emphasis will be placed on promoting electrified vehicles: electric vehicles and rechargeable hybrids,” the press release says.
According to the press service, in 2021 the total sales of four Stellantis brands in Ukraine exceeded 11,000 units with a market growth of 22% compared to 2020 – up to 116,300 units (including 103,650 passenger cars and 12,700 commercial (LCV) cars.
As reported, in 2020 the share of Stellantis brands was 8.5% of the car market, and this year it was planned to take up to 10.5%.
The leader of Stellantis in Ukraine – the Peugeot brand – in 2021 increased sales by 14% compared to 2020, to 4,930 cars (market share 4.23%).
Citroёn last year increased sales in Ukraine by 56% – to 4,600 units, while more than half of sales fell on commercial vehicles, and the brand became the leader in the light commercial vehicles (LCV) market.
Coal mining enterprises of Ukraine in 2021 increased production of coal by 2% (by 569,500 tonnes) compared to 2020 – to 29.388 million tonnes, according to the data of the Ministry of Energy.
In particular, production of steam coal amounted to 22.153 million tonnes, coking coal – 7.234 million tonnes.
According to the calculations of the Interfax-Ukraine agency, coal mining enterprises, which are part of the ministry’s sphere of management, last year increased production by 1.9 times – up to 5.446 million tonnes, which is largely due to the return from the lease by DTEK of the assets of state enterprise Dobropilliavuhillia.
The mines of Donetsk region in 2021 ensured the production of 11.892 million tonnes of coal (up 5.7% from 2020), Luhansk region – 257,600 tonnes (up 14.2%), Dnipropetrovsk – 16.032 million tonnes (up 0.2%), Lviv – 1.182 million tonnes (down 9.7%), Volyn – 24,400 tonnes (down 28.5%).
In December 2021, production of coal in the country increased by 5.8% compared to the same month in 2020 – to 2.772 million tonnes.
