The Cabinet of Ministers expects the hryvnia exchange rate in the range of UAH 28 or UAH 29 per $1 in 2022-2023 and inflation will decrease to 6.2% in 2022 and 5% in 2023, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
The head of government said the relevant indicators are laid down in the Budget Declaration and the 2022-2024 Forecast of Economic and Social Development, approved by the government.
“The growth of salaries in the next three years will be approximately 8% to 10% per year (taking into account inflation). Inflation will return to the target of 5% in 2023, and it will be 6.2% in 2022,” Shmyhal said.
According to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, the approved documents provide for the reduction of the budget deficit by almost half and the return of this indicator to the planned 3% in 2023.
“The public debt is planned to be reduced to less than 50% of GDP,” Shmyhal said.
At the same time, from 2023, Ukraine will be able to enter a stable trend of economic development by 5% per year, he said.
Metinvest, the largest Ukrainian mining and metallurgical holding, in 2020 ranked 45th in the list of the world’s largest steel producers with a volume of 10.16 million tonnes compared to the 42nd place in 2017-2019, when it produced 9.59 million tonnes, 9.37 million tonnes and 9.58 million tonnes, respectively.
According to the annual compilation published by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel), China Baowu Group became the largest steel company last year with 115.29 million tonnes, and ArcelorMittal dropped to the second place from the first position with 78.46 million tonnes.
They are followed by Shagang Group with 41.59 million tonnes, Nippon Steel with 41.58 million tonnes, HBIS Group with 43.76 million tonnes, and POSCO with 40.58 million tonnes.
There are no Ukrainian companies in the list of the 50 largest world steel producers in 2020, as well as in 2014-2019, except for Metinvest. Industrial Union of Donbas corporation (ISD), which ranked 44th in 2013 with a production volume of 7.9 million tonnes, dropped out of the list of leaders.
According to Worldsteel, Ukraine produced 20.6 million tonnes of steel in 2020 and ranked 12th.
The Ukrainian Restaurant Association welcomes bill No. 5590 on amendments to the Tax Code to reduce the value added tax rate for the restaurant industry and catering services from 20% to 7%.
According to the association, about 63% of the restaurateurs surveyed by it expect business development due to the VAT reduction, and 19% of respondents intend to reorganize into an LLC if such an amendment to the code is adopted.
“Catering establishments often use the individual entrepreneur system for selling food and the LLC system for selling alcohol. This creates a number of difficulties for the restaurateurs themselves – the impossibility of maintaining civilized transparent relations with banks in terms of obtaining loans, limiting cashless payments with retail chains, the complexity of administering the tax payment process,” President of the Ukrainian Restaurant Association Serhiy Trakhachev said.
“Today there is a huge demand from the industry itself for the transition to a civilized and transparent form of existence. But this request is limited by a significant tax burden, in particular the need to pay VAT at the standard level of 20%,” he said.
So, the adoption of the amendments will allow increasing working capital in the restaurant sector and save jobs. According to the association, due to the coronavirus pandemic and quarantine restrictions, the volume of the restaurant market in Ukraine in 2020 decreased by a third and amounted to UAH 14.1 billion, almost all market players reduced their revenue.
Smart Energy plans to invest $ 400 million in hydrocarbon production by 2031, CEO of the group of companies Serhiy Hlazunov has told reporters, presenting the results of ten years of activity in the market.
According to him, the total volume of Smart Energy investments in production for 2011-2020 amounted to UAH 3.5 billion, in particular, in 2019 – UAH 687 million, in 2020 – UAH 541 million.
The total amount of taxes paid for this period exceeded UAH 7.6 billion, in particular, in 2019 – UAH 1.291 billion, in 2020 – UAH 947 million.
Hlazunov said that in the next ten years, the group plans to drill over 30 new wells, while in the previous ten years, 13 wells were drilled. The existing Smart Energy park currently consists of 29 wells.
As reported, Smart Energy in 2020 increased natural gas production by 8.6% (by 31.8 million cubic meters) compared to 2019, to 400.6 million cubic meters, gas condensate – by 4.8% (by 1,600 tonnes), to 34,700 tonnes, and production of liquefied propane-butane – by 9.5% (by 800 tonnes), to 9,200 tonnes.
Smart Energy is a management company, part of Vadim Novinsky’s Smart-Holding Group, which implements projects in the field of hydrocarbon production and alternative energy. The group’s oil and gas business is represented in Poltava and Kharkiv regions by PrJSC Ukrgazvydobutok, the British public company Enwell Energy with assets in Poltava region, Prom-Energo Product LLC and Arkona Gas-Energy LLC.
The government has proposed that the Verkhovna Rada approves methods for calculating minimum tax applicability for land plots under cultivation being in so-called “domestic offshore,” for which taxes are not paid.
The formula for calculating the size of the tax is included in the so-called resource bill No. 5600 with amendments to the Tax Code on ensuring balanced budget receipts. The document was registered in parliament.
The document proposes to supplement Article 381 of the Tax Code with a formula according to which minimum tax applicability depends on the general standard pecuniary value of the land plot and the period during which the land plot was owned by the business entity.
The formula looks like this:
MTA = SPV × A × F × M / 12
Where:
MTA – minimum tax applicability;
SPV – standard pecuniary value of 1 hectare of a land plot;
A is the area of the land plot in hectares;
M is the number of calendar months during which the land plot was owned, leased or used on other terms by the taxpayer;
F – factor equal to 0.05.
According to the document, for a land plot that has not been evaluated it will be assessed as 1 hectare of arable land in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea or in the region, taking into account the indexation factor determined by the Code in the prescribed manner.
For sole proprietors, fourth group payers under the simplified tax system, the factor will be 0.025.
According to the bill, the minimum tax applicability is determined for allotments (allotments for construction); allotment cooperatives (societies) for vegetable growing and gardening; reserve lands; unclaimed plots at the disposal of local governments; sites exposed to radioactive contamination after the Chornobyl disaster in the exclusion zones.
“If an individual owns or uses one or more land plots, the total size of which does not exceed the size specified in Subparagraph 24 of Paragraph 1 of Article 165 of this Code, the minimum tax applicability for these land plots is not determined,” the authors of the bill said in the promulgated document.
When transferring to lease and sublease, inheritance or other use of land, the minimum tax applicability is determined for tenants and users in the manner prescribed in the Tax Code.
