The Verkhovna Rada has supported drone production in Ukraine by exempting components of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from value added tax and import duty for the time being.
Bills No. 9275 and 9276 were voted for by 284 and 289 people’s deputies at the plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada on Monday in the first reading and as a whole, respectively, parliamentarian Yaroslav Zheleznyak (Golos faction) said in a Telegram.
The bills amend the Tax and Customs Codes and help optimize UAV production and supply processes.
In particular, for the duration of martial law, components (materials, units, equipment units, components) of UAVs that enterprises import for their own activities for the production and repair of unmanned aerial vehicles are exempt from VAT and import duty.
Ukraine’s total national debt in April 2023 increased by 3.6% and reached a new historic high: in dollar terms – by $4.37 billion, to $124.28 billion, in UAH – by 159.9 billion, to UAH 4 trillion 544.9 billion, according to the Ministry of Finance.
According to them, the direct national debt over the previous month rose by 4.0% – to $115.08 billion, or UAH 4 trillion 208.3 billion, amounting to 92.6% of the total public debt and publicly guaranteed debt.
It is reported that the external direct debt in April increased by $4.68 billion – to $75.79 billion, while the domestic direct – reduced by 8.0 billion UAH to UAH 1 trillion 436.7 billion (the equivalent of $39.29 billion).
The aggregate external public debt of Ukraine in April 2023 increased by 5.9%, or $4.61 billion – to $83.11 billion, while the total domestic – decreased by 0.6%, or 8.6 billion UAH, to 1 trillion 505.5 billion UAH.
As a result, the share of total external public debt in April increased from 65.5% to 66.9%.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the share of obligations in euros at the end of April rose to 26.02%, in Canadian dollars – to 2.57%, in SDR – to 13.24%, while in U.S. dollars it fell to 27.11%, in UAH – to 30.24%, in Yen – 0.80% and in British pounds remained at 0.02%.
The Ministry also specified that 65.18% of the state debt had a fixed interest rate, whereas 13.24% was tied to the IMF rate, 6.42% – to SOFR, 0.92% – to Libor, 3.77% – to EURIBOR.
The rate of another 3.19% of the government debt is tied to the consumer price index, while 6.93% is tied to the NBU discount rate. We are talking about government bonds from the portfolio of the National Bank. The most recent ones are the securities tied to the discount rate, which the NBU bought within the frames of budget emission financing.
Finally, 0.33% of the government debt is linked to the Ukrainian index of interest rates on deposits of individuals, used in portfolio guarantee programs.
Since the beginning of 2023, the total national debt of Ukraine increased by 11.6%: $12.89 billion in dollar equivalent and UAH 471.4 billion.
As previously reported, the public debt and publicly guaranteed debt of Ukraine in 2022 increased by $ 13.4 billion – up to 78.5% of GDP from 48.9% at the end of 2021.
The Verkhovna Rada has supported in the first reading the government’s bill #8401 on the abolition of a flat tax of 2% and other benefits for entrepreneurs starting July 1, 2023. This is one of the conditions for cooperation with the IMF and the dragging out of the bill has caused concern.
According to information on the website of the Rada, 227 people’s deputies voted for the adoption of the bill, with the required minimum of 226 votes.
“The adoption of the bill will increase revenues to the state and local budgets in 2023 in the amount of about 10 billion UAH,” Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko commented on the parliament’s decision.
According to published information, the bill proposes to cancel the possibility for sole proprietors and legal entities to be single tax payers of group III with the application of the single tax rate of 2% of income and to resume payment of single tax for groups I and II FLP.
The bill provides for the resumption of documentary checks, but during martial law they will be held in the presence of safe access to areas, premises and other property used for economic activities and / or taxable objects, as well as documents and other information related to the calculation and payment of taxes and fees.
The ministry noted that it is proposed to resume the application of penalties for violations of tax laws, the correctness of the calculation, calculation and payment of a single fee for obligatory state social insurance and the use of BPR / BPR and resume the terms defined in the tax law.
Marchenko stressed that the bill does not provide for an increase in taxes and does not introduce new tax rates, and the rules are aimed primarily at bringing the tax laws back to their pre-war state.
The law is expected to take effect July 1, 2023 – as stipulated by agreements with the IMF.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the bill is one of the 19 structural beacons of the four-year, $15.6 billion EFF program for Ukraine, which was approved by the IMF Board of Directors on March 31.
The program’s schedule calls for three tranches of SDR664 million ($893 million) to be disbursed to Ukraine after the first tranche in mid-June and October this year and in late February the following year after the first, second and third revisions, when commitments are evaluated for the end of April, June and December this year, respectively.
The IMF mission on the first review of the program is currently working in Vienna. Its results may be as early as the end of May.
The Cabinet of Ministers approved the financial plan of PJSC Ukrnafta for 2023, which provides for 12 billion UAH of net profit, the head of the company Serhiy Koretskyy said on Facebook on Monday.
“For the first time in the years of the company’s existence, this document was prepared in accordance with the requirements of the law of Ukraine “On management of state property” and received five mandatory conclusions of the ministries,” Koretsky wrote.
The conclusions, in particular, received from the ministries of economy, defense, energy, digital transformation and finance.
The document provides for the company on the results of activity in 2023 74 billion UAH of net income, 12 billion UAH of net profit, 25 billion UAH of tax payments in favor of the state, including rent, income tax, VAT, payroll taxation, as well as 9 billion UAH of investments, including a record 5.5 billion UAH of investments in production.
“The actual results of work, which we openly communicate, prove that managerial decisions taken by the team are able to provide a stable rhythmic work of the enterprise and, as a consequence, the growth of income and profits,” said the head of Ukrnafta.
As it was reported, Ukrnafta finished the first quarter of 2023 with a net profit of UAH 4.3 billion.
This figure is equal to net profit received by the company for the whole 2020 (UAH 4.3 billion) and almost twice as much as the result for 2021 (UAH 2.4 billion).
Ukrnafta’s average daily oil output in the first quarter of 2023 amounted to 3.926 thousand tons, while the average daily output in 2022 was 3.753 thousand tons.
On November 5, 2022, the Supreme Commander in Chief decided to confiscate Ukrnafta shares (except for the controlling interest in Naftohaz Ukrainy) as military property of the state for the period of martial law. Prior to the seizure, the structures of Ihor Kolomoyskyy and Hennadiy Boholyubov owned about 42% of Ukrnafta shares.
As of the end of March 2023, Ukrnafta had 89 fields with 3.7 thousand oil and gas wells. The company operates 451 petrol stations.
“Ukrnafta in 2022 reduced its production of oil with condensate by 8.6% compared to 2021 – to 1.37 million tons.
“Ukrnafta” in 2023 plans to increase oil production by 5.8% (by 0.08 million tons) compared to last year – to 1.45 million tons, gas – by 0.3% (by 0.003 million cubic meters), to 1.04 billion cubic meters
The regional department of the State Property Fund in Kiev sold at auction a single property complex of SE “Elektronmash” (Ring Road, 4) for nearly 121 million UAH, while the two previous failed auctions for its sale could bring the budget 970 million UAH and 430 million UAH.
“Despite the air raid and rocket attacks, the auction to privatize the Electronmash plant took place. Another advantage of electronic bidding on the platform “Prozorro. Sales” platform – entrepreneurs can compete for assets while in hiding,” the press service of the State Property Fund said.
According to the press release, a single property complex was put up for privatization, totaling 110.7 thousand square meters. m of real estate and more than 200 thousand square meters. m of land. In the capital, Electronmash has 36 pieces of property, including shops and administration buildings. The company has 31 vehicles and a recreation base in the village of Sokolovka, Chernigov region.
In the auction was attended by 6 entrepreneurs. The final bid at the auction almost doubled.
The winner was LLC “Incom Rent” with a bid of 120.81 million UAH. As reported in the release, in addition to the winning bid the winner must pay the VAT – 24.2 million UAH and more than 23 million UAH of the debt to employees and the state budget.
The winner has 20 working days to pay the cost of the lot.
According to Youcontrol, LLC “Incom Rent” was founded in 2018, the authorized capital is 1 thousand UAH. The founders of the company are AMC Arivo Asset Management LLC in the interests of PVNZIF Arivo Corporate (60%) and Plates-1 LLC (40%). Lyudmila Yakovleva and Oleg Magalyas are named as beneficiaries.
The second highest bidder at the auction was BSK GROUP LLC – UAH 120.777 million. According to Youcontrol, the company was founded in 2013 with a share capital of 1 thousand UAH. The ultimate beneficiary is indicated as Oleksandr Sokor.
As reported, this is the third attempt to privatize Elektronmash. The previous two auctions for its sale could bring significant investments into the budget – UAH 970 million and UAH 430 million, but unscrupulous investors did not complete the purchase within the prescribed period.
Electronmash” SE (previously – State Scientific Production Enterprise “Electronmash”) was created on the basis of the plant of electronic computing and control machines, which since 1965 provided the Soviet Union with the computing equipment.
In recent years it showed significant damage. In 2022, Elektronmash suffered 8.2 million hryvnias in damages, in 2021 it suffered 24 million hryvnias and in 2020 it suffered 10.9 million hryvnias. The number of employees at the plant is decreasing: if in 2020 there were 175 employees, in 2021 there will be already 149, and in 2022 there will be 127.
At present, the main specialization of the plant is the production of electric motors, generators and transformers, as well as metalwork turning services.
In recent years, it has produced, in particular, automatic gas metering systems, commercial metering and payment systems for energy resources and utilities.
Turkish lira exchange rate on Monday once again updated its historic low against the U.S. dollar on the results of the presidential election.
The national currency is trading at 20.1004 lira/$1 from 19.9731 lira/$1 at the close of the previous session. Over the past twelve months, the lira has fallen in value by about 23 percent.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley predict that the Turkish currency rate could drop another 29% by the end of this year – to about 28 lira/$1 if the country’s current policies persist. The experts at Wells Fargo & Co. expect a decline to 23 liras/$1 by the end of the current quarter.
Meanwhile, the BIST 100 stock index jumped 4.1 percent in trading Monday to a two-week high. It has nearly doubled over the year (up 88.2%).
Leaders of the rise include companies that earn a significant portion of their revenues from abroad, including glass maker Sise ve Cam Fabrikalari (+6.2%) and Turkish Airlines (+3.3%).
The yield on Turkey’s ten-year government bonds is around 9% annually, the lowest level since January.
Current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the second round of presidential elections. In a speech after the announcement of his victory, he called on his fellow citizens to unite and work together for the good of the country, and promised to address urgent problems, in particular to deal with the effects of inflation.
