US President Joe Biden has signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which provides a record $886 billion for defense needs in fiscal year 2024, the White House said in a statement on Friday, December 22.
“The law authorizes appropriations for the fiscal year primarily for the Department of Defense, national security programs of the Department of Energy, the Department of State, and the intelligence community. The law provides the critical authority we need to build the armed forces needed to deter future conflicts, and supports the service members, their spouses and families who carry out this mission every day,” the statement said.
As reported, on December 14, the US Senate approved a $886 billion defense bill, according to which a new position of special inspector general is to be created to monitor the use of military aid by Ukraine.
It was also reported that the Senate version of the budget included $300 million for Ukraine.
In 11 months of 2023, Ukrhydroenergo paid UAH 7.9 billion in taxes, duties and other mandatory payments to the state budget, including UAH 2.2 billion in dividends.
According to the company’s press release on Tuesday, in addition to taxes, direct assistance to the Armed Forces amounted to more than UAH 200 million during the year.
“In the context of confronting the aggressor, one of the main tasks of all enterprises, regardless of ownership, is to pay taxes in full and on time. This is primarily additional funds for the resilience of the Armed Forces, social support for Ukrainians affected by the Russian armed aggression and the restoration of our country,” Ukrhydroenergo emphasized.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed the law on the state budget for 2024.
According to the card of the relevant draft law No. 10000 posted on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, the document was returned to the parliament with the signature of the head of state on November 28.
As reported, on November 9, the Verkhovna Rada adopted as a whole the draft law No. 10000 on the state budget for 2024.
In January-October 2023, Ukrgasvydobuvannya JSC paid UAH 19.85 billion in rent payments, the company’s press service reports.
According to the press service, UAH 992.26 million, or 5%, of this amount went to the budgets of the local and regional levels where the company operates.
From January to October 2023, the budgets of Kharkiv and Poltava regions received the largest deductions – UAH 484.96 million and UAH 415.32 million, respectively.
As reported, in 2023, Ukrgasvydobuvannya set a goal to increase natural gas production by 1 bcm to 13.5 bcm. In 2022, UGV produced 12.5 bcm of natural gas (commercial), which is 3% less than in 2021.
NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine owns 100% of Ukrgasvydobuvannya shares.
Direct budgetary funding for Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) in 2023 will amount to UAH 5 billion, of which UAH 3.5 billion has already been allocated over 10 months, and the government provides state guarantees for another UAH 6 billion for loans that the company takes out from international financial institutions, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has reported.
In particular, according to the Ministry of Finance, it is UAH 3.9 billion from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and UAH 2.1 billion from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
It is specified that out of the UAH 3.5 billion already allocated this year, almost UAH 3 billion has been allocated for the purchase of new passenger railcars, including the completion of payment for 100 passenger railcars ordered in 2021 and 44 railcars in 2023.
“The prepayment for the purchase of 44 new passenger cars was made on October 28 this year, including the supply of 9 new reserved seats. These will be the first new second-class cars purchased over the past 15 years and the first Ukrainian-made second-class cars,” Deputy Finance Minister Oleksandr Kava said in a release. He recalled that Russian second-class cars were previously purchased.
According to the Ministry of Finance, work is also underway to implement international projects aimed at restoring railway infrastructure: attracting a loan from the EBRD of up to EUR 200 million under the Emergency Support to Ukrainian Railways Project, a $25 million World Bank grant under the Restoration of Critical Infrastructure and Network Connectivity (RELINC) project, a EUR 37.6 million loan from France, and grant assistance from Switzerland for CHF 14 million.
As reported, this fall UZ signed a contract with Kryukiv Carriage Works (KVSZ, Poltava region) for the manufacture of 44 passenger railcars for UAH 1.951 billion with delivery by December 31, 2025.
By the spring of 2023, KVSZ had completed fulfilling Ukrzaliznytsia’s order for 100 passenger railcars under the contract signed in 2021 for more than UAH 3 billion, but pointed to late payment.
In January-September this year, Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group, including its associates and joint ventures, paid almost UAH 11 billion in taxes and duties to the budgets of all levels in Ukraine.
According to the company’s press release on Thursday, despite Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Rinat Akhmetov’s Metinvest remains the backbone of the country’s economy.
Metinvest’s Ukrainian enterprises paid UAH 2.8 billion in income tax, UAH 2.4 billion in unified social tax and UAH 2.3 billion in personal income tax in January-September this year. At the same time, Metinvest increased its land payments by 4% year-on-year to UAH 893 million in the first nine months of the year, up to UAH 1.5 billion.
Subsoil use fees (UAH 1.5 billion) and environmental tax (UAH 449 million) became significant sources of revenues for the state and local budgets of Ukraine.
In the third quarter of 2023, the Group transferred UAH 4.6 billion to the Ukrainian budget, which is 15% more than in the same period last year.
In particular, in July-September, Metinvest’s enterprises increased their income tax payments by 28% compared to July-September 2022, to UAH 1.7 billion. Over the same period, unified social tax payments increased by 8% compared to the third quarter of 2022, to UAH 847 million. And the payment of personal income tax increased by 12% compared to July-September 2022 to UAH 818 million.
In addition, in the third quarter of 2023, the group’s companies paid UAH 618 million for subsoil use, up 2% year-on-year. At the same time, land payments for July-September this year increased by 9% to UAH 304 million compared to the same period in 2022, and environmental tax increased by 24% to UAH 146 million.
Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest, noted that at the beginning of the great war, Metinvest faced serious challenges, which the group continues to overcome.
“We had to rebuild our business, create new supply chains for exporting products and change our operating model. All these steps helped the company to survive and remain one of the largest taxpayers in Ukraine. We want to help Ukrainians, the country and the army, just as we have taken care of our employees and residents of the regions where we operate. That is why we continue to work for victory in all areas,” the top manager was quoted as saying.
As reported earlier, Metinvest, including its associates and joint ventures, paid more than UAH 2.5 billion in taxes and fees to the budgets of all levels in Ukraine in January-March 2023, more than UAH 6.3 billion in the first half of 2023, and UAH 20.5 billion in 2022.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies. The Group’s enterprises are mainly located in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions.
The main shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage it.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
