The road service in Ternopil region and the Turkish company Onur Group have signed an agreement for the repair of 47 km of the road between Ternopil and Berezhany on the M-12 Stry-Ternopil-Kropyvnytsky-Znamyanka route.
The State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) reported on its Facebook page the work will start in the second half of March. It is planned that the vehicles will move from the village of Pidhorodne to the west. Part of the work, as noted by the winner of the tender, will be performed by a subcontractor.
“This section is the first new object of the Big Construction project in 2021 in Ternopil region. The repair of the M-12 highway is a priority of the presidential program, because together with the M-04 highway it will form a new route dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Independence. The M-30 highway will be to run from Stry (Lviv region) to Izvaryne (Luhansk region) and will be the longest in Ukraine. The total length of the road will be 1,392 km. It will symbolically “sew” the west of the country and the east, including the temporarily occupied territories captured by occupation forces, and after the victory over them, the road to this village will also be restored,” Ukravtodor said.
The agency notes that a section of the future M-30 Stry-Izvaryne highway in Ternopil region runs from the borders of Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytsky regions through Ternopil. From the regional center to the border of Khmelnytsky region, it was restored in 2018. And from Ternopil through the city of Berezhany to the borders of Ivano-Frankivsk region, this road has not been repaired since the 1990s.
Onur Taahhut, founded in 1991, carries out the construction of roads, bridges, abutments, structures and road reconstruction works. The company has successfully implemented important projects in Croatia, Ukraine, Tunisia, Moldova, Oman, Equatorial Guinea and Turkmenistan. It has experience in performing construction and installation works at infrastructure facilities throughout Ukraine.
Ukraine expects to receive some $2.9 billion in financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2021, for which the parliament is supposed to pass legislative amendments on reforming the judicial system, presidential economic advisor Oleh Ustenko said.
“We expect to receive an IMF tranche this year. Our program envisions $5 billion, and we have already received $2.1 billion,” Ustenko said on Ukrainian television on Monday.
“Ukraine’s cooperation with the International Monetary Fund is continuing,” he said.
“The Verkhovna Rada is supposed to pass legislative amendments essential for receiving the next tranche. I am talking about the need for judicial reform and [legislation] ensuring the functioning of anti-corruption infrastructure,” he said.
He said “the requirements of the program of cooperation with the IMF coincide with the program of the President of Ukraine, on which the head of state has repeatedly said.”
Ustenko also said, in order to amend the Ukrainian legislation in terms of the judicial system, the president held many meetings, communicated with Ukrainian and foreign experts and persuaded the MPs of the Verkhovna Rada.
“The program is taking place. As soon as the relevant legislative initiatives of the president are voted in the Verkhovna Rada, we can say that on our part we have fulfilled what we promised. We promised to fulfill not only the IMF, we do not do it for someone, we do it for Ukrainian people,” the advisor to the head of state said.
Ustenko said that successful cooperation with the IMF will give Ukraine the opportunity to make more profitable borrowings on the international market and is a good signal for foreign investors.
He also added that 2020 was a difficult year in terms of attracting investment, but the Ukrainian economy could receive about $3 billion in foreign direct investment in 2021.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky was vaccinated against coronavirus (COVID-19), the head of state said on his Instagram page.
“Doctors and military personnel are already being vaccinated. I urge all others to join the Diia queue. There is nothing to be afraid of, I am setting my own example,” the president said on Tuesday.
On Twitter, Zelensky said that he was vaccinated on the front line with Ukrainian soldiers as commander-in-chief.
“The same Oxford/AstraZeneca (Covishield) from India, which was delivered first to Ukraine, and which received millions of people around the world. The vaccine will allow us to live again without restrictions,” he said.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 02/03/21
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of March 02
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
An increase in the excise tax on heated tobacco products by 200% from April 1 this year and its further growth by 30% (up to 320% in total) in 2022-2025 – such a compromise solution will allow avoiding too sharp price jumps and will provide more tax revenues than the alternative “shock” scenario, according to the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE).
As reported on the union’s website on Monday, the business supports relevant bill No. 4278, which provides for such a procedure for increasing the excise tax. At the same time, the organization believes that this approach, among other things, will save jobs in companies, and the legal market, without reducing tax revenues to the budgets of various levels.
According to the business league, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, when considering bill No. 4278, supported an increase in the excise tax on heated tobacco products by 200% in 2021 and a subsequent annual increase by 30% in 2022-2025.
The ULIE referred in a press release to the data of the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, according to which a gradual increase in excise tax rates on heated tobacco products within five years will provide UAH 18.7 billion more tax revenues than the alternative “shock” scenario with an increase in excise tax immediately in 4.2 times this year.
At the same time, the ULIE clarified that under the model of a gradual increase in excise tax, Philip Morris Ukraine tobacco company guaranteed the payment of more than UAH 11 billion of excise tax on heated tobacco products to the state budget of Ukraine during 2021-2022.
The Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs said that legislative amendments affecting the consumer basket should correlate with the purchasing power of consumers, which will ultimately be affected by the rise in prices for products. “Otherwise, this situation will stimulate smuggling and the illegal sector,” the business league said.
As reported, on January 16, 2020, the Verkhovna Rada adopted law No. 1210, which introduced amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine, increasing the excise tax rate on heated tobacco products by 4 times from January 1, 2021. Also, a separate product subgroup is introduced for heated tobacco products.
