Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is looking for ways to cut the energy tariffs for households, but it should be done in a way so not to devaluate the hryvnia, arouse additional inflation or economic crisis, representative of the head of state in the government Andriy Gerus has written on his Facebook page. According to him, work in this direction is underway. The president has already held two meetings devoted to this issue, and to fulfill the task, an efficient parliament and new laws are needed.
Now, Zelensky’s team is developing a comprehensive plan to reduce housing and utility tariffs for households, where possible, without negative side effects, the presidential envoy to the Cabinet of Ministers said.
One of the necessary conditions for this plan is the demonopolization of energy markets, Gerus said, expressing the hope that the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine will eventually begin to work fully.
According to him, it is also necessary to achieve growth in gas production (for which it is necessary to attract foreign investors to this area). At the same time, Gerus added that the stoppage of gas imports, according to the calculations of the Zelensky’s team, will reduce its price for households by 20-30%.
The president’s team also understands that some categories of the population are unfairly deprived of subsidies, the rules should be reviewed. To find funds in the budget for their payment, some oligarchs will have to be deprived of tax breaks and preferences, Gerus said.
He also said about unofficial information in the press about the increase in gas tariffs for households by 10-15% and electricity tariffs – by 150%.
“Our opinion was: these steps cannot be done without trust and understanding of society. Before this, there is a need to demonstrate to Ukrainians firm and fair actions of regulators regarding energy monopolies, and also show that punishment is incurred for stealing tariff funds. As I understand, our opinion has been taken into account,” Gerus said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will pay an official visit to France on June 17 and to Germany on June 18, the Presidential Administration has reported.
“The program of the visits envisages meetings of the head of state with the leadership of France and Germany, the heads of parliaments, as well as with leading French and German business representatives,” the administration said on its Facebook page on Thursday.
The Kyivstar mobile communications operator has started providing 4G services in Kharkiv subway, the operator has reported. One can use high-speed mobile Internet both at the stations and while moving between them.
“The speed of the mobile Internet will be comfortable enough for both Internet surfing and fast data transfer,” the company said.
The operator reported that in its network over 40% of all mobile Internet traffic is used in the 4G network.
“In Kharkiv in May 2018, subscribers used only 95 terabytes of mobile traffic in the 4G network, and in May of 2019 – 10 times more, about 1,000 terabytes,” the company said.
Kyivstar is the largest Ukrainian mobile operator. It provides communication and data services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies, including 4G. As of the end of 2018, 26.4 million mobile subscribers and about 0.9 million fixed Internet clients used its services.
U.S. Trident Acquisitions Corp., which submitted one of the four bids in a tender to develop the Dolphin section on the Black Sea shelf under a product sharing agreement (PSA), has said that the company is ready to invest $1 billion. “We proposed investment in the amount of $1 billion to Ukraine, the start of production in three and a half years if the reserves are discovered and the most experienced offshore fields development team,” Trident Acquisitions CEO, former Deputy of the State Duma of Russia Ilya Ponomarev, who became the Ukrainian citizen under a decree of Petro Poroshenko in May, wrote on his Facebook page.
“We see what rivals would say, we are keeping our fingers crossed and looking forward for [the results],” he said.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on April 12 announced a tender to develop the Dolphin Black Sea shelf section under the PSA. The term of the PSA is 50 years. The winner of the tender must provide a geological survey of the subsoil at the site, including the drilling of at least five wells during the first stage (five years) of geological exploration. The minimum investment that must be made in this period will be determined by the results of the tender, but must be at least UAH 1.5 billion.
The initiative to develop the Dolphin section belonged to another U.S. company, Frontera Resources Corporation, which also applied its bid for the tender.
Two other participants are Caspian Drilling International Ltd, a state-owned oil company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), and Ukrnaftoburinnia, one of the largest private gas producing companies in Ukraine.
Ukrainian enterprises increased imports of copper and copper products in terms of money by 22.2% in January-May 2019 compared with January-May 2018, to $43.232 million. Exports of copper and copper products decreased 47.5% over the year to $39.288 million, according to customs statistics released by the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.
In May, copper and copper products were imported to the tune of $7.22 million, and copper exports were estimated at $10.171 million.
In addition, Ukraine in January-May 2019 increased imports of nickel and products made of it by 0.4%, to $39.061 million (imports in May were estimated at $8.952 million), while imports of aluminum and products made of it increased 10.8%, to $159.035 million ($36.524 million). Imports of, lead and products made of it rose by 23.8%, to $5.289 million ($1.039 million) and imports of tin and products made of it decreased 33.5%, to $1.42 ($0.403 million). Imports of zinc and zinc goods decreased 30.5%, to $26.458 million ($6.775 million).
Exports of aluminum and products made of it decreased 29% in January-May 2019, to $41.995 million ($10.135 million in May alone), while shipments of lead abroad decreased 32%, to $10.949 million ($3.112 million). Exports of nickel fell by 20.1%, to $2.519 million ($0.847 million in May).
Zinc exports in January-May 2019 amounted to $0.332 million (some $0.101 million in May) compared to $0.061 million in January-May 2018.
Exports of tin and products made of it in January-May 2019 were estimated at $0.027 million (some $0.004 million in May) compared to $0.268 million in January-May 2018.
National bank of ukraine’s official rates as of 13/06/19
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
